Making Developmental Policy Climate Positive
Easwaran Narassimhan F15 FG21 is no stranger to Fletcher. An alumnus of the Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD) program and the doctoral program in international relations, he has long contributed to the school’s research on environmental policy and economic development.
A former faculty affiliate of Fletcher’s Climate Policy Lab, Narassimhan returns from New Delhi this fall to join Fletcher as an assistant professor of climate and energy policy.
Personal Health Sparks a Career Change
Narassimhan’s career in climate policy had an unexpected start. Trained in electrical engineering, he came to the United States to earn a master’s degree at Texas A&M University. While living in the U.S., Narassimhan noticed a stark difference in how his asthma and allergies affected him compared with his youth in India, sparking his curiosity in air quality and pollution.
His interest deepened while working as a design engineer at the semiconductor firm Intel during the Copenhagen Climate Summit, at a time when challenges to climate policy were at the forefront of global debate. Determined to explore the policy dimensions of these issues, Narassimhan began taking summer courses at both Fletcher and the Harvard Extension School. It was during this time that he met Fletcher’s William Moomaw, professor emeritus and the founding director of the Center for International Environment and Research Policy (CIERP).
“I happened to meet Professor Bill Moomaw during summer school,” Narassimhan said. “His passion and deep commitment to climate action through teaching and scholarship deeply inspired me. I knew that this was what I wanted to do with my career.”
Shaping a Research Path at Fletcher
Narassimhan joined Fletcher’s MALD program and studied environmental policy and economic development, with a particular focus on the transition to sustainable transportation. He was interested in understanding how adopting cleaner transportation technologies could also address climate change, reduce air pollution and improve respiratory health.
“I completed an internship at National Renewable Energy Laboratory, where I looked at what kinds of policies and incentives were influencing the rate of adoption of electric vehicles in the U.S.,” he said. “I wanted to do that work for India and other developing countries too, but access to data was the biggest challenge.”
Motivated to ground his research in the reality of emerging economies, Narassimhan continued his studies at Fletcher as a doctoral candidate in international relations.
“I have been working on energy technology, industrial policy and innovation to promote clean energy ever since,” he said.
After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Narassimhan returned to India to develop Sustainable Futures Collaborative, a climate and sustainability focused think tank.
From Student to Professor: A Full Circle Journey
At Sustainable Futures Collaborative, Narassimhan worked to connect clean energy technology and innovation with core developmental priorities, such as GDP growth and job creation.
“I started thinking about more synergistic work,” Narassimhan said. “How can you make developmental policy climate positive?”
At Fletcher, Narassimhan plans to bring a similar integrated perspective into the classroom. His International Energy Policy class this fall will explore how countries determine energy portfolios within a particular set of geopolitical constraints.
Narassimhan looks forward to joining the faculty that once mentored him, and he encourages students to take full advantage of Fletcher’s collaborative environment, which supported him through his career pivot.
“Fletcher bet on me to make best use of the school and its courses,” Narassimhan said. “If I was interested in something, I set up a meeting with a professor and talked about it.”
“That’s the best part of my story,” he added. “Fletcher made it possible for someone with a completely different background to go through this academic journey and come back and teach.”
Read more about Fletcher’s International Development and Environmental Policy Field of Study.