Dr Joana Portugal Pereira is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Instituto Superior Técnico, ULisboa. She holds a PhD in Urban Engineering from The University of Tokyo (2011), with a focus on life cycle assessment modelling of alternative fuels, and a Licenciatura degree in Environmental Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico, ULisboa (2006).
With over 13 years of experience as an independent researcher, Dr. Portugal Pereira has made significant contributions to global environmental assessments, serving as a lead author for reports such as the IPCC Sixth Assessment Cycle, the UN Environment Programme's Seventh Global Environmental Outlook (GEO7), and the UNEP Emissions Gap Report. She played a pivotal role in coordinating influential IPCC Special Reports on Global Warming of 1.5°C pathways and Climate Change and Land as a Senior Scientist in the IPCC Working Group III on Mitigation of Climate Change.
Her expertise lies in energy and land-based innovations for environmental mitigation and climate change adaptation. Dr Portugal Pereira specialises in developing energy modelling tools to assess economic and environmental co-benefits in low-carbon trajectories.
Dr. Portugal Pereira's extensive international collaborations span the Asia-Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean regions, working with organisations such as the United Nations, Asian Development Bank, the European Union, and UK government agencies. She serves as an Associated Editor for the Elsevier Environmental Science and Policy Journal and is a member of the editorial boards of the Elsevier Renewable and Sustainable Energy Transition and Cleaner Environmental Systems Journals. Since 2023, she has been a Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.