Bio

Hélène Benveniste is an Assistant Professor in the Global Environmental Policy unit of the Department of Environmental Social Sciences at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. She works on international environmental policy and politics, with focuses on climate-related human migration and global governance of environmental issues. In her research, she uses both quantitative and qualitative methods drawn from political and other social sciences. Her work has appeared in scientific journals including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Nature Climate Change. Prior to joining Stanford, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University. She holds a Ph.D. in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.

Academic Appointments

Administrative Appointments

  • Steven and Roberta Denning Faculty Fellow in Global Governance for Sustainability, Stanford University (2024 - Present)

Professional Education

  • Ph.D., Princeton University, Science, Technology & Environmental Policy, Public and International Affairs (2021)
  • M.A., Princeton University, Science, Technology & Environmental Policy, Public and International Affairs (2018)
  • M.Sc., Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris, Engineering (2012)

Contact

  • Academic
    helene.benveniste@stanford.edu
    University - Faculty Department: Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability Position: Assistant Professor
    • 473 VIA ORTEGA
    • STANFORD,  California  94305 

Additional Info

  • Mail Code: 4216

Links

All Publications

  • Climate change increases resource-constrained international immobility NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE Benveniste, H., Oppenheimer, M., Fleurbaey, M. 2022; 12 (7): 634-+

    View details for DOI 10.1038/s41558-022-01401-w

    View details for Web of Science ID 000821924500022

  • Tracing international migration in projections of income and inequality across the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways CLIMATIC CHANGE Benveniste, H., Cuaresma, J., Gidden, M., Muttarak, R. 2021; 166 (3-4)

    View details for DOI 10.1007/s10584-021-03133-w

    View details for Web of Science ID 001027975000001

  • Effect of border policy on exposure and vulnerability to climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Benveniste, H., Oppenheimer, M., Fleurbaey, M. 2020; 117 (43): 26692-26702

    Abstract

    Migration may be increasingly used as adaptation strategy to reduce populations' exposure and vulnerability to climate change impacts. Conversely, either through lack of information about risks at destinations or as outcome of balancing those risks, people might move to locations where they are more exposed to climatic risk than at their origin locations. Climate damages, whose quantification informs understanding of societal exposure and vulnerability, are typically computed by integrated assessment models (IAMs). Yet migration is hardly included in commonly used IAMs. In this paper, we investigate how border policy, a key influence on international migration flows, affects exposure and vulnerability to climate change impacts. To this aim, we include international migration and remittance dynamics explicitly in a widely used IAM employing a gravity model and compare four scenarios of border policy. We then quantify effects of border policy on population distribution, income, exposure, and vulnerability and of CO2 emissions and temperature increase for the period 2015 to 2100 along five scenarios of future development and climate change. We find that most migrants tend to move to areas where they are less exposed and vulnerable than where they came from. Our results confirm that migration and remittances can positively contribute to climate change adaptation. Crucially, our findings imply that restrictive border policy can increase exposure and vulnerability, by trapping people in areas where they are more exposed and vulnerable than where they would otherwise migrate. These results suggest that the consequences of migration policy should play a greater part in deliberations about international climate policy.

    View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.2007597117

    View details for PubMedID 33046645

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC7604488

  • Impacts of nationally determined contributions on 2030 global greenhouse gas emissions: uncertainty analysis and distribution of emissions ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS Benveniste, H., Boucher, O., Guivarch, C., Le Treut, H., Criqui, P. 2018; 13 (1)

    View details for DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/aaa0b9

    View details for Web of Science ID 000423175500001

  • Opinion: In the wake of Paris Agreement, scientists must embrace new directions for climate change research. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Boucher, O., Bellassen, V., Benveniste, H., Ciais, P., Criqui, P., Guivarch, C., Le Treut, H., Mathy, S., Séférian, R. 2016; 113 (27): 7287-90

    View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.1607739113

    View details for PubMedID 27382141

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC4941459