RLI PhD candidate Zakia Soomauroo at UN-General Assembly in New York

October 2^th 2018 – Zakia Soomauroo, PhD candidate at RLI, is currently visiting the United Nations in New York City for a three-week internship by invitation of the Embassy of Mauritius.

In this context, she took part in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and attended events in the field of environments and climate. Zakia does research on the integration of e-mobility on island states in the RLI Research Unit Off-Grid-Systems.

Zakia participated in a general debate of the UN and in discussion panels on the financing of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and attended a meeting of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) on the SIDS Lighthouse Initiative, a project dealing with the electricity supply of island states by renewable energy systems.

One question that Zakia has observed in many different discussions at UNGA events is the importance of Open Data and easy access to current databases – a topic also addressed by the RLI.

The UNGA had started on September 18^th and lasts for two weeks. The General Assembly goes along with a wide range of side events in different fields, such as “Climate and Environment”, “Economic Development” and “Conflict and Migration”.

For an inside view of Zakia’s experience at the General Assembly, follow her on Twitter.
For further information please see the United Nations General Assembly’s website. A complete list of all events is available here.