Dr Marlene Attzs – Feature Speaker, COTE 2026

Dr Marlene Attzs is a Development Economist, Lecturer in Economics at The University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine, and an Independent Senator in the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago. Her work spans sustainable development, environmental economics, climate change and disaster risk, economic resilience, and the development challenges confronting Caribbean Small Island Developing States.

A longstanding member of the Department of Economics, Dr Attzs was a founding member of the Sustainable Economic Development Unit (SEDU), established in 1996, an early UWI initiative dedicated to advancing research and policy dialogue on sustainable development. She has served as Head of the Department of Economics, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, and Advisor to the Campus Principal on Strategy and Institutional Effectiveness.

Her scholarship and policy engagement extend beyond the University through research and advisory work for regional and international development institutions, including the Caribbean Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and United Nations agencies. In 2014, she contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report, serving as a Review Editor for Chapter 3, “Social, Economic and Ethical Concepts and Methods,” of the Working Group III report, Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change.

Across her academic scholarship, policy engagement and national service, Dr Attzs has maintained a consistent focus on the development challenges facing the Caribbean and on how the region can transform its human, natural and institutional resources into resilient, inclusive and sustainable development.