Anna Agarwal
Fellow, Adaptation and Resilience
Anna Agarwal is a Fellow, Adaptation and Resilience, at the Sustainable Futures Collaborative. She works on identifying ways to strengthen India's long-term resilience to extreme heat. Her current research focuses on how rising summer temperatures impact low-income communities and other heat-vulnerable groups. Anna also works on India's energy demand transitions, focusing on cooling electricity demand — which is poised to increase substantially with climate change — and on making this transition more energy-efficient and low-carbon. Previously, Anna was a Visiting Professor in the Department of Sustainable Energy at IIT Kanpur, a Fellow at CPR's Initiative on Climate, Energy and Environment, and a Senior Fellow at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC-India). She has also held research appointments at MIT's Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research and the MIT Energy Initiative. Anna holds a PhD and a Master's from MIT, and an undergraduate degree from IIT Delhi.
Publications
Opinions
Adaptation and Resilience
Energy Transitions
How India can keep cool as energy demands overheat its power grid
Sarada Prasanna Das, Anna Agarwal, and Shubranshu Suman
Scroll | 24 June 2026
Heatwaves are no longer temporary disruptions to India’s power system; they are emerging as one of its defining operating conditions. The challenge is not merely to keep pace with rising power demand, but also to build a power system that is reliable, climate-resilient, socially equitable, and capable of supporting the country’s long-term energy transition.
Opinions
Energy Transitions
संतुलित शीतलन, सुदृढ़ ग्रिड: भारत की संकटग्रस्त विद्युत प्रणाली के लिए सुधार का मार्ग
Sarada Prasanna Das, Anna Agarwal, and Shubranshu Suman
Down To Earth Hindi | 19 June 2026
देश के सम्मुख चुनौती अब केवल बढ़ती हुई बिजली मांग के साथ कदमताल मिलाने तक सीमित नहीं है| यह एक ऐसी बिजली प्रणाली का निर्माण करने की है जो पूर्णतः विश्वसनीय, जलवायु-अनुकूल, सामाजिक रूप से न्यायसंगत, और भारत के दीर्घकालिक ऊर्जा संक्रमण के लक्ष्यों को संबल प्रदान करने में पूर्णतः समर्थ हो।
Opinions
Adaptation and Resilience
Energy inefficiency can short circuit cooling India
Anna Agarwal
The Hindu | 17 June 2021
As Indian homes will be a key site where future cooling demand will play out, awareness of energy efficiency is crucial
Journal articles
Adaptation and Resilience
The what, why, and how of changing cooling energy consumption in India’s urban households
Radhika Khosla, Anna Agarwal et al.
Environmental Research Letters | 25 March 2021
Based on empirical analyses, this research examines a set of fundamental questions around India’s cooling transition.
Opinions
Adaptation and Resilience
Energy Transitions
The poor must be included as change agents in the roadmap for clean energy
Ashwini K Swain, Anna Agarwal, and Parth Bhatia
The Indian Express | 4 July 2019
The immediate priority is to better target central aid for the poor. We identify three ideas that build and improve existing programmes, and should be prioritised by the Ministry of Finance in making budgetary allocations. All are important for ensuring the welfare of the poor.