Kamilla Karhunmaa was a visiting Fulbright fellow at the Program on Science, Technology and Society at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in the 2017-2018 academic year and is a PhD candidate at Helsinki University in environmental policy and science and technology studies. Her PhD research examines the relationships between change and stability in energy policy, and the ways in which energy transitions are debated and negotiated in Finland. While at Harvard, Kamilla will focus on how sociotechnical imaginaries influence national and local level energy policies, and how different societal groups navigate the science-policy gap in energy policy.

Kamilla’s PhD research spans energy policy debates in parliament, local government, civil society, media and academia in Finland. The individual cases look at expectations of national and local energy governance, the role of academics in energy policy debates, and the strategies employed by different actors attempting to influence energy policy.

Kamilla has a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Master’s degree in Social and Public Policy from Helsinki University. Prior to her PhD research, Kamilla worked as a researcher at Finland Futures Research Centre at the University of Turku, examining the intersections of climate change policy and development policy in the Mekong region and East Africa. Kamilla’s prior work focused particularly on the local development aspects of household energy technology projects in voluntary carbon markets.

Publications:

Karhunmaa, K. (2016) Opening up storylines of co-benefits in voluntary carbon markets: An analysis of household energy technology projects in developing countries, Energy Research and Social Science 14, pp.71-79

Käkönen, M., Lebel, L., Karhunmaa, K., Dany, V., Try, T. (2014) Rendering Climate Change Governable in the Least Developed Countries: Policy Narratives and Expert Technologies in Cambodia, Forum for Development Studies 41 (3), pp. 351-376