Jordan Harris is a Sociologist and Political Scientist of the University of Illinois, with post-graduate experience in Sociology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Jordan is currently Project Coordinator for the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM) in the Americas, coordinating the GCoM project implementation in North America, Latin America and the Caribbean. GCoM is the largest global alliance for city climate leadership, built upon the commitment of over 10,000 cities and local governments. GCoM is defending the interests of cities in the Americas that pro-actively act against climate change and for energy efficiency and clean energy ranging from Canada to Argentina through Mexico, the USA, the Caribbean countries or Brazil, to cite a few only.
Jordan most recently worked as Subnational Governments for Climate Action Coordinator for the Chilean COP25 Presidency, supporting the integration of sub-national government stakeholders into the COP25 multi-level action agenda. Prior to this, he was National Director of Adapt-Chile, a Chilean NGO that facilitated processes of climate change adaptation and mitigation in local governments in Chile and throughout Latin America.
He has also worked in a research capacity within the Centre for Sustainable Urban Development (CEDEUS) within the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (PUC), having been previously involved as a researcher in the Institute of Urban and Territorial Studies (IEU+T) of the PUC, and professor of environmental sociology in the Universidad Diego Portals (UDP).
His primary research interests are currently focused on sustainable adaptation and multi-level climate change governance, capacity building, and science-policy interface in the context of climate change planning and decision-making, and local participatory climate change planning processes with subnational governments. This involves the promotion of platforms for dialogue and cooperation, together with the formation of and participation in multi and inter-sectoral networks, and encouraging informed decision making that allows society to respond to the challenges and opportunities of climate change.