Setu Pelz
Research Scholar
Transformative Institutional and Social Solutions Research Group
Energy, Climate, and Environment Program
Biography
Setu Sebastian Pelz is a research scholar in the Transformative Institutional and Social Solutions Research Group of the Energy, Climate, and Environment Program. His work centers on equitable solutions in the context of energy access, sustainable development, and climate change mitigation. In addition to his work at IIASA, Pelz is also part of the Transformation Pathways workstream of the Earth Commission.Prior to joining IIASA, he was a researcher and PhD student at the Reiner Lemoine Institute in Berlin, Germany. He earned his PhD with highest honors from the Department of Energy and Environmental Management at Europa-Universitat Flensburg in 2022. During this time, he also participated in the 2020 IIASA Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP) and received the Peccei Award for his study: “Impacts of grid electricity access on rural non-farm entrepreneurship and employment in Ethiopia and Nigeria”. His doctoral research focused on measuring energy access and poverty, informing the development of equitable policies that address disparities and barriers to achieving decent energy services for all. Prior to his doctoral studies, he worked on energy access projects in Kenya and Bangladesh with rural energy startups.
BlueSky
Last update: 30 SEP 2024
Publications
Pelz, S. , Ganti, G. , Lamboll, R., Grant, L., Smith, C. , Pachauri, S. , Rogelj, J. , Riahi, K. , Thiery, W., & Gidden, M.J. (2025). Using net-zero carbon debt to track climate overshoot responsibility. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 122 (13) e2409316122. 10.1073/pnas.2409316122.
Ganti, G. , Pelz, S. , Klönne, U., Gidden, M.J. , Schleussner, C.F., & Nicholls, Z. (2025). Fair carbon removal obligations under climate response uncertainty. Climate Policy 1-13. 10.1080/14693062.2025.2481138. (In Press)
Li, M., Pelz, S. , Lamboll, R., Wang, C., & Rogelj, J. (2025). A principle-based framework to determine countries’ fair warming contributions to the Paris Agreement. Nature Communications 16 (1) 10.1038/s41467-025-56397-6.
Pelz, S. , Ganti, G. , Pachauri, S. , Rogelj, J. , & Riahi, K. (2025). Entry points for assessing ‘fair shares’ in national mitigation contributions. Environmental Research Letters 20 (2) e024012. 10.1088/1748-9326/ada45f.
Lei, M., Pelz, S. , Pachauri, S. , & Cai, W. (2024). A dataset of income distribution on provincial, urban, and rural levels for China from 2020 to 2100. Scientific Data 11 (1) e1436. 10.1038/s41597-024-04304-x.