There is confusion surrounding how poverty eradication will contribute to climate change. Estimates range from ‘negligible’ to ‘disastrous’, based on vastly varying definitions of poverty, and ‘energy poverty’. This is due to knowledge gaps related to the meaning of poverty, and the relationship between energy use and human development. Dr. Rao will discuss how this problem has been, and ought to be, formulated, the flaws in past research, and how these should be addressed. He will also present preliminary results of recent research that aims to address this problem. For instance, he will show suggestive global evidence that countries’ progress in human development has been less carbon intensive that rise in affluence. He will discuss the notion of ‘decent living standards’, and how this can be translated to meaningful estimates of emissions that cause climate change, and relate them to notions of climate justice.
Narasimha D Rao is a Research Scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). His research interests lie in energy economics and policy, poverty and inequality, and climate mitigation. He is a recipient of the European Research Council (ERC)’s Starting Grant award for 2014 to research Decent Living Energy: energy and emissions thresholds for providing decent living standards to all. Dr. Narasimha D. Rao obtained his PhD from Stanford University, California, in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) in August 2011. Dr. Rao has previous Master’s degrees in Electrical engineering and Technology Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His professional experience includes four years as a Visiting Faculty at the Indian Institute of Management’s Center for Public Policy in Bangalore, India, and seven years of consulting in the electricity industry in the US.
His CV and publications can be found at www.iiasa.ac.at/rao-narasimha
