Carla Gomes holds a PhD in International Development from the University of East Anglia (United Kingdom) and in Sociology of the Environment and Territory from the University of Lisbon (co-tutelle), as well as an Advanced Postgraduate certificate on Climate Change and Sustainable Development Policies. Her doctoral thesis, sponsored by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, analysed the effects of farmland investments on rural communities in Mozambique, through the perspective of environmental justice.

She holds a Masters in Environmental Management and Policies from the University of Aveiro (Portugal). The master’s thesis gave rise to the book “Climate Change and Clean Development: Cooperation between Portugal and the PALOP” (published in Portuguese), awarded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. She also graduated in Social Communication, specializing in Journalism, at the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal, and worked as an environment journalist for several years.

She is currently involved in various projects on climate adaptation and stakeholder engagement at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS-ULisboa), with which she has collaborated since 2010 (Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change of the Algarve region, Monitoring and Implementation of the Adaptation Strategy of the Municipality of Loulé). She was also the main research assistant for the interdisciplinary project CHANGE: Changing Climate, Changing Coasts, Changing Communities – glocal erosions, risk conceptions and sustainable solutions in Portugal, financed by FCT (PTDC / CS-SOC / 100376/2008) and coordinated by ICS-ULisboa.

Carla is a member of the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research (UK), the Network of Environmental Studies in the Portuguese-Speaking Countries (REALP) and BRASPOR – Luso-Brazilian Network on Coastal Zones.