Easwaran J Narassimhan

Fellow and Coordinator, Climate Policy

easwaran@sustainablefutures.org

Easwaran J Narassimhan is a Fellow and Coordinator of climate policy at the Sustainable Futures Collaborative (SFC) in New Delhi, India. He is also a visiting faculty member at the Climate Policy Lab, Fletcher School, Tufts University. Previously, Easwaran was a Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) in New Delhi and a Research Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. At SFC, Easwaran focuses on energy technology innovation, green industrialization, and energy transition in emerging economies. He has also worked extensively on climate policy analysis, including studying market-based and non-market-based policy interventions worldwide and identifying policy mixes for low-carbon development in developing countries. Easwaran holds an MA and PhD in International Affairs from The Fletcher School, Tufts University.

Publications

Journal articles

Climate Policy

Energy Transitions

Is net zero net positive? – Opportunities and challenges for pursuing a socio-economically sensitive net-zero transition for India

Easwaran Narassimhan, Tarun Gopalakrishnan et al.

Climate Policy Journal | 26 November 2024

Using a mixed methodology of expert elicitation and system dynamics modelling, this article examines the policy gap that needs to be bridged for India to realize its net zero by 2070 commitment. The study discusses a socio-economically sensitive policy mix that could set India on a trajectory to peak its emissions in a decade and zero out its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by mid-century, leaving about one gigaton of other greenhouse gases to be decarbonized by 2070 to meet India’s net-zero goal.

Issue Brief

Climate Policy

Ratcheting Ambition in Climate Finance: Key Challenges and Goals for COP29

Nikita Shukla, Aman Srivastava, and Easwaran J. Narassimhan

8 November 2024

An overview of key issues to watch in discussions on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), including the role and relevance of the NCQG, strategies for effective implementation, and implications of the outcome for broader climate diplomacy.

SFC Perspectives

Adaptation and Resilience

Climate Policy

Energy Transitions

Environmental Governance and Policy

SFC Perspectives on Adaptation and Resilience, Climate Policy, Energy Transitions, and Environmental Governance and Policy

SFC

SFC | 19 March 2024

SFC Perspectives are intended to stimulate discussion by providing an overview of key issues and avenues for action to inform India's sustainable development trajectory.

SFC Perspectives

Climate Policy

Perspectives on Climate Policy: Embedding a development-centric, climate-ready approach to policymaking

Aman Srivastava, Easwaran J Narassimhan and Navroz K Dubash

SFC | 18 March 2024

The Climate Policy group within SFC approaches policy challenges through a strategic lens, aiming for long-term structural change by shifting discourse, building stronger institutions, and aligning conditions for implementation.

Journal articles

Climate Policy

Strategies for green industrial and innovation policy–an analysis of policy alignment, misalignment, and realignment around dominant designs in the EV sector

Easwaran J Narassimhan, Zdenka Myslikova et al.

Environmental Research Letters | 7 December 2023

This paper explores which combination of technology-push and demand-pull policies best situates a country to lead in clean energy innovation, as new or dominant designs emerge and replace older technologies. A new analytical framework for green industrial policy is applied to BEV drivetrain technology to examine the use of policy alignment and misalignment by countries with big automakers as they pursue strategic green industrial policy.

Opinions

Energy Transitions

India’s just energy transition is more than a coal story

Easwaran J Narassimhan, Ashwini K Swain et al.

The Hindu | 6 February 2023

India’s G-20 presidency is an opportunity for New Delhi to negotiate a deal for itself while also shaping international cooperation on just energy transitions.

Journal articles

Climate Policy

Carbon Pricing in the US: Examining State-Level Policy Support and Federal Resistance

Easwaran J Narassimhan, Stefan Koester et al.

Politics and Governance | 17 March 2022

Federal carbon pricing in the US suffers from the lack of any natural and/or consistent constituency to support it through policy development, legislation, and implementation. While interest group politics have been mitigated by good policy entrepreneurship at the subnational level, the lack of policy entrepreneurship and the changing positions of competing interest groups have kept a federal carbon pricing policy from becoming a reality.

Journal articles

Climate Policy

From fossil to low carbon: The evolution of global public energy innovation

Fang Zhang, Kelly Sims Gallagher et al.

Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change | 17 August 2021

Global government energy RD&D investments between 2000-2018 are decarbonizing. Nuclear has held steady, fossil fuels have decreased, and clean energy has increased. China and India have now joined the United States and Japan in the ranks of the top four countries overall.

Climate Policy

Green Industrial Policy: A Delicate Dance between Socio-Economic and Environmental Objectives

Easwaran J Narassimhan

Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy | 1 April 2021

The central purpose of this dissertation is to examine how countries at different stages of economic development address socio-economic objectives through green industrial policies, focusing mainly on the employment implications of their policies. The dissertation draws on interviews with more than 100 experts in China, India, South Africa, and Ethiopia to analyze the employment implications of specific green industrial policy strategies, policy choices, and policy design and the role of government in managing the same.

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