Monica Alonso Soria was interested in finance from an early age. But after graduating from college and working in the field for a few years, Soria felt something was missing. “I wanted to have a long-lasting impact on society and the environment,” she remembers thinking. Soria decided to switch her career focus and joined the Nature Conservancy (TNC), first as a financial specialist in Mexico City and then as a sustainable debt financial analyst in Washington, D.C.
This fall, Soria joins Columbia’s inaugural class of the M.S. in Climate Finance as one of three recipients of the Stanley Park Scholarship. Below, she tells us about her path to climate finance, what this scholarship represents and what she hopes to learn from the program and her classmates.
Congratulations, first of all, on receiving the scholarship. What does this award mean to you?
I was super happy when I received the news. It was so unexpected because I knew that so many people were applying since it was the first M.S. in Climate Finance in the U.S. It was good news, not only for me, but also for the nonprofit sector. We don’t have these two topics together in many universities.
I’m working for an NGO that does worldwide conservation. The award made it possible for me to access this kind of top-notch education. For me, this is a long-term commitment. It’s about knowledge transferring. I know as a financial practitioner, I have a mission of sharing what I have learned from my nine years in the finance space and six years in environmental finance, and also sharing the challenges we face in the global architecture of climate finance.
Could you tell us a little more about your background and how you got into climate finance?
I studied finance in college. After that, I went to KPMG to work as a global consultant in transfer pricing. Then I went into investment banking, which is one of the areas that I enjoyed the most in finance. But I thought my career was not fully aligned with my values.
I decided to switch my career path. Three years after graduating from college, I joined TNC, which is a global environmental NGO, as a financial specialist for the North America regional office. It was a huge change because I was used to investment banking, but in TNC, I was doing corporate finance. Still, I felt so fulfilled because I was performing such an important role for conservation and ensuring all our strategies were funded. Then I switched my role within TNC and was relocated to the U.S. to join the sustainable debt team, which is within our nature bonds strategy. We perform ‘debt-for-nature’ swaps. This is a brand new product in the climate finance environment. We’ve closed six transactions and I was part of three of them, raising about $1.6 billion of new financing. These are capital markets transactions that can unlock new funding for conservation and climate initiatives that are going to last for about 15 to 20 years.
Why did you decide to apply for the M.S. in Climate Finance? What do you hope to come away with?
I applied to Columbia and this program in particular because I think Columbia has a holistic view of the system. It’s not only about finance, it’s also about climate science and policy, which is important to move the needle in this space. I am also aware of the exceptional financial practitioners within the Climate School, Business School and all the research centers we have. I like the approach they have toward blended finance, which is one of the components that I’m more interested in.
After graduating, I will have a different skill set and I will be able to connect with like-minded people. I think it’s so important because the challenges of the climate crisis demand collaboration. I see a lot of competition right now and I don’t think that’s going to lead us where we need to go. I believe that we need to collaborate, meet new people, not only within the school, but also in the city. I think New York is shaping the climate finance environment, so I want to be a part of it.
“We need to find ways to sustain what sustains us, including the financial mechanisms and the science and people components.”
Are there specific classes or topics you’re most excited about?
I am looking forward especially to digging into climate adaptation because, coming from the Global South, this is a very important topic for me, rooted in environmental and social justice. It is also a really underfunded stream and quite urgent. We need to find ways to sustain what sustains us, including the financial mechanisms and the science and people components.
I’m also really excited for the International Climate Finance course, because there are many issues within the current global architecture of climate finance and I want to better understand how we can overcome them and accelerate the mobilization of funding.
How do you envision your future role in helping to solve or address the climate crisis?
I think I will have a totally different idea after I graduate, but right now, I want to continue working at the sovereign level. I work with ministers of finance and environment because we can leverage so much impact at the country level. We have a highly indebted Global South. Countries don’t have the fiscal space to finance their conservation and climate goals, which is what I want to focus on. I aim to continue working either for the NGO sector, the government sector, think tanks or any other institution that can provide the technical assistance necessary to build the bridge between the governments and the capital markets.
What keeps you motivated?
Science. Through the implementation of this new program, I see that there is hope. Two years ago, I was in Belize. I went to a nursery of the coral reef, where I was impressed by the work the communities and scientists were doing, regenerating nature. I think we are still on time. There is also a lot of interest in the climate finance sector. What gives me hope is that we can still come back to the path to net-zero if we find the right policies and financial incentives for the private sector to join.
It’s a hard year for climate and NGOs. What gives me hope is all these like-minded people that have the same or similar mission as I do. I’m super excited to learn about their experiences and about solutions they are implementing in the other parts of the world.
Is there anything else you wanted to add?
I would like to encourage other people to apply to the program, regardless of what the ‘regular’ path is. I’m 32 and one of my dreams was to study in an Ivy League, but I thought the window of opportunity had already closed. Now I realize I’m not the only one; there is a diverse cohort of people coming to grad school. I feel this is a lifetime opportunity, and I’m so happy to be part of this.
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