In her early years with Urgewald, the biologist worked as a forest campaigner. Protests against the clearing of primary forests and tree-climbing actions at dizzying heights were part of the repertoire she brought with her. Her contacts with Indigenous peoples in Canada motivated her to launch a consumer campaign for recycled paper. Land rights violations caused by pulp plantations - such as those in Brazil or South Africa - were also a focus of her campaign against the paper companies and financial institutions responsible. As part of international NGO networks, she advocated for minimum environmental and social standards for pulp production and the financing of pulp projects by banks.
With “Bankrolling Climate Change,” she initiated the first financial investigation into coal. To establish the effectiveness of large-scale data research, Lydia built up urgewald’s research team and led it for ten years. Under her leadership, the first Global Coal Exit List (GCEL) was created in 2017 and has been steadily expanded year after year. Through countless discussions and meetings with financial institutions from around the world, she and her team made the GCEL a sought-after tool for the financial industry’s coal phase-out. She negotiated with various index providers regarding the use of the data, which helped expand the reach of the GCEL and GOGEL to include passive investing as well.
Today, she oversees the area of financial institutions and their sustainability guidelines.
