Hi, I’m Rita Sousa

I am interested in environment and energy economics, and climate change issues.

I hold a PhD in Climate Change and Sustainable Development Policies, with specialization in carbon mechanisms, an MSc in Economics and Policies of Energy and the Environment and a degree in Economics.
I work on carbon pricing mechanisms, on energy and low-carbon development scenarios at the national and local levels, and on modeling the linkage of renewable power systems. Currently, I teach and research at the Economics Department of the University of Minho and NIPE, and am an expert evaluator for the European Commission (European Innovation Council).
In the past, I worked in the Engineering Faculty of the University of Porto, in the Power Systems Unit of INESC Porto, in energy and carbon consulting companies, in the Portuguese Climate Delegation to the UNFCCC, and in the management of a nature conservation national park (National Park Peneda-Gerês).

Research

Publications

Gonçalves, C., Honrado, J. P., Cerejeira, J., Sousa, R., Fernandes, P. M., Vaz, A. S., . . . Santos, J. A. (2021). On the development of a regional climate change adaptation plan: Integrating model-assisted projections and stakeholders’ perceptions. Science of the Total Environment, 150320. Forthcoming

Sousa, R., Álvarez-Espinosa, A. C., Pardo, N. R., Leon, S. F. M., Otalora, G. R., Diaz, S. C., Vazão, C., Barata, P. M. & Salcedo, L. R. (2020). Emissions trading in the development model of Colombia. Climate Policy 20 (9), 1161-1174.

Aguiar-Conraria, L., Soares, M. J., & Sousa, R. (2018). California’s carbon market and energy prices: a wavelet analysis. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A, 376(2126), 20170256.

Sousa, R., Agante, E., Cerejeira, J., & Portela, M. (2018). EEE fees and the WEEE system – A model of efficiency and income in European countries. Waste management, 79, 770-780.

Sousa, R. and Aguiar-Conraria, L. (2015). Energy and carbon prices: a comparison of interactions in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and the Western Climate Initiative market. Carbon Management 6(3-4): 129-140.

Sousa, R., Aguiar-Conraria, L. and Soares, M. J. (2014). Carbon financial markets: A time–frequency analysis of CO2 prices. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications 414(0): 118-127.

Projects

CLICTOUR – Climate change resilient tourism in protected areas of Northern Portugal – 2021-2023 (Coordinator)

CoaClimateRisk – Climate change impact assessment and adaptation measures for the main crops in the Coa Valley region – 2019-2022 (Researcher)

ECOFire – The economic value of forest fires as support for prevention behavior – 2020-2022 (Co-coordinator)

VOLANTIS – Advances in Nonlinear Time Series Econometric Modelling and Applications – 2018-2022 (Researcher)

Teaching and supervising

 

I currently focus on Environment and Energy Economics, Macroeconomics and Public Finances courses.
I am interested in supervising students working on energy and emissions pricing (trading, taxes, etc.), low carbon development, energy scenarios, low carbon scenarios and ecological macroeconomics. For other specific energy and climate change economics policy issues please contact me.

Teaching

2021/2022

Sabbatical leave

Previous

. Energy Economics (MSc.) (since 2015)
. Macroeconomics (BSc.) (since 2017)
. Public Finance (BSc.) (since 2014)
. Sustainable Development and Digital Transformation (since 2021)
. Economics of the Environment (BSc. and MSc.) (2018-2019)
. Economics and Environment (BSc.) (2015-2016)
. Energy Economics (BSc. and MSc.) (since 2015)
. Energy and Environment Economics (MSc.) (since 2014)

Supervising

PostDoc “Evaluation of environmental climate policies in Portugal”, 2021-2022, Carolina Bernardo, University of Minho (work in progress).

 

MSc. “Angola’s Low Carbon Development Scenarios to 2050”, 2020-2021, Hamilton Feijó, University of Minho (work in progress).

 

MSc. “The Impact of Renewable Energy Consumption on Economic Growth”, 2020-2021, Daniel Branco, University of Minho (work in progress).

 

MSc. “Financial markets in the Green Era – Green Bonds”, 2020-2021, Susana Braga, University of Minho (work in progress).

 

MSc. “Economic analysis of the energy matrix – the case of renewable energies in Brazil”, 2018-2019, Maira Tanaka, University of Minho (work in progress).

 

MSc. “Analysis of generation and regulation of renewable electricity in Portugal”, 2018, Dário Dias, University of Minho.

 

MSc. “Institutional carbon footprint – an application of the MC3 method to DST SA”, 2017, Bruno Veiga, University of Minho.

 

MSc. “Energy and Carbon: Relations between prices of natural gas, electricity, and carbon.”, 2013, Nuno Gonçalo da Silva Marques, Beira Interior University.

Curriculum Vitae

OrcID: 0000-0002-0709-3399
Researcher id: J-4807-2016

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Google Scholar

EEG UMinho

Contact

 

 

ritasousa@eeg.uminho.pt

 

 

+351 253 601 383

 

 

University of Minho
School of Economics and Management
Department of Economics
Campus de Gualtar
4710 – 057 Braga
Portugal