Barbara Haya combines research and outreach with a focus on the effectiveness of carbon offset programs. She directs the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project, which examines the outcomes of California's and voluntary offset programs and performs outreach to ensure the Project's research results inform offset program design.

Haya holds a PhD from UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group, where she studied the outcomes of the Kyoto Protocol’s offset program, the Clean Development Mechanism, and worked closely with NGOs at the international climate change negotiations in support of offset program reform. Prior to returning to UC Berkeley, she worked with the Union of Concerned Scientists and then Stanford Law School contributing analysis on the design and implementation of California’s global warming law.