Ceren Ayas

Senior Project Manager

Ceren works within Climateworks’ International Country Context team, where she is responsible for projects and initiatives across Southeast Asia with a specific focus on a fair and inclusive – or ‘just’ – transition and Just Energy Transition Partnerships.

Prior to joining Climateworks Centre, Ceren worked in various roles in climate mitigation and coal transitions over the last two decades. This included leading the Power Sector Programme of Turkey at the European Climate Foundation, as well as being the Climate and Energy Programme Supervisor of Turkey at World Wildlife Fund, and operating as an independent consultant.

Ceren is finalising her PhD with the University of Melbourne, School of Social and Political Sciences on just coal transitions in the global South. Her academic work on the political economy of coal and coal transitions has been published in high-impact journals and books such as Nature, Environmental Research Letters and Routledge Press. She is an independent board member of the Sunrise Project Australia.

Ceren also holds a Master of Science, specialising in environmental sociology, as well as a Bachelor of Arts, both from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey.