February 27, 2025: IRES Faculty Seminar with Dr. Tarun Khanna

Evidence Based Climate Policy: What works, for whom and when?

Time: 12:30pm to 1:20pm

Location: Henry Angus Building, Rm 347 (third floor, 2053 Main Mall)

No food and no drinks allowed in Henry Angus Rm 347.

View Recording


Talk summary:

Limiting global warming to well below 2°C requires swift and effective climate policies. However, science assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlight our limited understanding of what policy solutions work, under what conditions, for whom and how. Rigorously synthesizing the insights from thousands of primary evaluations can improve climate policy practice just as collectivized evidence has transformed clinical guidance in health. In the talk I will highlight examples of this evidence-based approach to climate policy and highlight the efforts that are being made to synthesize evidence using community resources and the latest machine learning approaches.

Dr. Tarun Khanna
Assistant Professor, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs

Bio:

I am the Assistant Professor of Energy and Climate Policy at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, and a visiting researcher at the Mercator Research Institute on Climate Change in Berlin. I am interested in the economics of the energy sector and the incentives needed to create low carbon energy systems. My wider research interests include evidence synthesis, policy evaluation, electricity markets, and the role of clean energy in development. Before turning to academia, I was a policy practitioner. I worked with regulators, governments, and utilities in the design and implementation of electricity policy in South Asia.