Narasimha Rao
Senior Research Scholar
Transformative Institutional and Social Solutions Research Group
Energy, Climate, and Environment Program
Biography
Narasimha Rao is a senior research scholar in the IIASA Transformative Institutional and Social Solutions Research Group of the Energy, Climate, and Environment Program and an Associate Professor of Energy Systems at the Yale School of the Environment, in the US. His research examines the relationship between energy systems, human development, and climate change. He is a contributing author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s Sixth Assessment Report.He is the recipient of the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant (2015-2018) for a project entitled Decent Living Energy, which explores energy and emissions thresholds for providing decent living standards for all. His research interests also include income inequality, infrastructure, and climate policy. For his current research, Rao was awarded the 2011 Amulya K. Reddy Prize for the Best Paper in the journal Energy for Sustainable Development for his paper entitled 'Kerosene Subsidies in India: When Energy Policy Fails as Social Policy'.
Rao obtained his PhD in Environment and Resources from Stanford University, California, and two Master's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Technology Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Last update: 16 JUN 2021
Publications
Rao, N.D. , Agarwal, A., & Wood, D. (2016). Impacts of small-scale electricity systems: A study of rural communities in India and Nepal. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. ISBN 978-1-56973-885-6
Cameron, C., Pachauri, S. , Rao, N. , Riahi, K. , & Ummel, K. (2015). Synergies and Trade-offs between Climate Mitigation and Universal Access to Clean Cooking Goals. In: Systems Analysis 2015 - A Conference in Celebration of Howard Raiffa, 11 -13 November, 2015, Laxenburg, Austria.
Lamb, W.F. & Rao, N.D. (2015). Human development in a climate-constrained world: What the past says about the future. Global Environmental Change 33 14-22. 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.03.010.
Rao, N.D. , McCollum, D., Dubash, N.K., & Khosla, R. (2015). Development and climate policy synergies: insights from global modelling studies. Center for Policy Research (CPR) , New Delhi, India.
Dubash, N.K., Khosla, R., Rao, N.D. , & Sharma, K.R. (2015). Informing India's energy and climate debate: policy lessons from modelling studies. Research Report, Climate Initiative, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, India