Economics Research Intern

Environmental Defense Fund; United States; Hybrid; USD 25,000 - 28,000; Part time

Job summary

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) offers a Fall 2026 internship within the Economics and Policy team, focusing on measuring, monetizing, and mitigating health and climate impacts from petrochemical pollution and other sources. The role involves research, writing, and data analysis to support the Manager, Economics and Policy, and collaboration with the Healthy Communities focus area.

The internship can be 20 hours per week (part-time) or 35 hours per week (full-time), with U.S.

Qualifications

• Enrolled in or recent graduate of an undergraduate or graduate degree program with coursework in public policy, environmental studies, communications, environmental health, or similar fields.
• Demonstrated interest and/or experience in technical writing, data analysis, and stakeholder interviews recommended.
• Basic proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint.
• Experience in ArcGIS Desktop and/or QGIS preferred.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Must be well organized, motivated, and detail‑oriented.
• Ability to multi‑task, prioritize and meet deadlines.
• Ability to work in a team setting and have the ability to work independently when projects are due.
• Demonstrate self‑awareness, cultural competency and inclusivity, and ability to work with colleagues and stakeholders across all cultures and backgrounds.
• Demonstrate initiative and problem solving skills.

Responsibilities

• Work with data analytical and visualization tools to represent summary statistics and patterns among observations of emissions data from industrial facilities and other sources of pollution.
• Prepare draft sections of discussion papers, policy memos, and shorter work products for internal and external communication with the help of pre‑set annotated outlines provided by the team.
• Contribute to the development of an investor scoping strategy by using detailed financial and environmental risk profiles compiled by EDF research teams on petrochemical facilities in the United States.
• Participate in advancing EDF’s organizational effectiveness and culture goals, so people from all backgrounds and experiences feel connected, included and empowered to address environmental and organizational challenges in ways that align with EDF values.

Skills

Data analysis

Technical writing

Communication skills

Team collaboration

Education

Undergraduate or graduate student

Tools

Excel

PowerPoint

ArcGIS Desktop

QGIS

Job description

Location

U.S. Remote with option to be hybrid out of an EDF office in Washington, D.C., New York, San Francisco, Austin, Boulder. Intern supervisor is in Washington, D.C. and many team members are in New York, Boulder, and San Francisco.

Term

Fall 2026

Hours

Part‑time (20 hr/week) or Full‑time (35 hr/week)

Program/Department Overview

EDF’s Economics team utilizes research and analysis to address environmental challenges by creating economic incentives that align market forces with environmental goals and strengthens the work of all of EDF’s eight focus areas, including Healthy Communities, where the intern’s contributions will be focused. EDF’s Healthy Communities team is working with communities, scientists, economists, governments and industry to reduce the risks from global air pollution and toxic chemicals.

Overall Function

The intern will contribute research, writing, and analytical support to ongoing projects led by the Manager, Economics and Policy, in collaboration with EDF’s Healthy Communities focus area, primarily focusing on EDF’s efforts to measure, monetize, and mitigate the health, and climate harming impacts to communities from petrochemical pollution and other critical anthropogenic sources. As part of this effort, the intern will support the compilation of policy briefs, memos, and discussion papers that will disseminate findings from literature‑based discursive research and support the Manager in completing ongoing analytical tasks, which include the use of EDF‑designed tools to identify and visualize facility and regional level datasets aimed at capturing the socioeconomic determinants of health risks. The intern will also use insights from this research and other prescribed material developed by EDF teams to support the Manager in ongoing efforts to embed equity and justice considerations in the Economics team’s work.

Key Responsibilities

Tasks will include but are not limited to:

• Work with data analytical and visualization tools to represent summary statistics and patterns among observations of emissions data from industrial facilities and other sources of pollution.
• Prepare draft sections of discussion papers, policy memos, and shorter work products for internal and external communication with the help of pre‑set annotated outlines provided by the team.
• Contribute to the development of an investor scoping strategy by using detailed financial and environmental risk profiles compiled by EDF research teams on petrochemical facilities in the United States.
• Participate in advancing EDF’s organizational effectiveness and culture goals, so people from all backgrounds and experiences feel connected, included and empowered to address environmental and organizational challenges in ways that align with EDF values.

Qualifications

• Enrolled in or recent graduate of an undergraduate or graduate degree program with coursework in public policy, environmental studies, communications, environmental health, or similar fields.
• Demonstrated interest and/or experience in technical writing, data analysis, and stakeholder interviews recommended.
• Basic proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint.
• Experience in ArcGIS Desktop and/or QGIS preferred.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Must be well organized, motivated, and detail‑oriented.
• Ability to multi‑task, prioritize and meet deadlines.
• Ability to work in a team setting and have the ability to work independently when projects are due.
• Demonstrate self‑awareness, cultural competency and inclusivity, and ability to work with colleagues and stakeholders across all cultures and backgrounds.
• Demonstrate initiative and problem solving skills.

Compensation

This internship would involve compensation for work paid at a rate competitive with leading non‑profits at $18-20/hour, depending on degree level.

Learn more about internships at EDF -http://www.edf.org/environmental-careers/internships