Riddhi Samtani

Riddhi is from the island of Sint Maarten, the smallest entity in the world to be shared by two nationalities, both French and Dutch. Her experience growing up in a small island developing state that is disproportionately vulnerable to changes in climate led her to pursue this field academically and professionally across both public and private sectors of the economy. Riddhi holds a BA in International Affairs and Environmental Studies from Northeastern University in Boston, where she then worked at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as a Sustainability Consultant, and then as the Interim Head of Sustainability of a clean-tech startup, Phoenix Tailings. She returned to her home country 2 years ago to focus on climate mitigation and adaptation projects after Sint Maarten got hit by Hurricane Irma, a category 5 hurricane that devastated the island. She started her own consulting company, working with funds from the Netherlands, and providing her services to an implementation unit of the World Bank to implement these projects. In her free time, Riddhi works with a local NGO, Environmental Project in the Caribbean (EPIC) as a project coordinator, and volunteers her time doing underwater clean-ups and coral restoration projects on Sint Maarten. Throughout her career, she has consistently been advocating for climate justice for small islands, especially focused on representation of overseas countries and territories within the Dutch Kingdom, and the EU.