Dr. Arunabha Ghosh
Dr Arunabha Ghosh is an internationally recognised public policy expert, author, columnist, and institution builder. He is the founder-CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, and has led CEEW to the top ranks as one of Asia’s leading policy research institutions and among the world’s 20 best climate think-tanks. He played a formative role in creating the International Solar Alliance, and was a founding board member of the Clean Energy Access Network. Co-author/editor of four books and with experience in 53 countries, he previously worked at Princeton, Oxford, UNDP (New York), and WTO (Geneva). The Asia Society honoured him with the 2022 Asia Game Changer Award, for his and CEEW’s “incredible work, which is making a real difference for India and for the planet”.
Arunabha advises governments, industry, civil society, and international organisations around the world. In October 2024, the Government of India appointed him to the Commission for Air Quality Management. He currently co-chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Energy Nexus (and previously co-chaired the GFC on Clean Air). He served on Government of India’s G20 Finance Track Advisory Group and advised the Sherpa Track for India’s G20 Presidency in 2022-23. In 2022, the UN Secretary-General appointed him to the High-level Expert Group on the Credibility and Accountability of Net-Zero Announcements by Non-State Actors. In 2020, the Government of India appointed him Co-Chair of the energy, environment and climate change track for India’s Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP2020).
Dr Ghosh is currently Vice-Chair of the UN Committee for Development Policy, having been first nominated to the UNCDP by the UN Secretary-General in 2018. He co-convened the Our Common Air Commission. He is a member of several international expert advisory groups: Global Commission on the Economics of Water; High-Level Group of Economists, constituted by the French president for the One Planet Lab; and the Senior Consultative Group for the U.S. Department of State’s Energy Transition Accelerator. He sits on the Oversight Committee of the Exploring Climate Cooling Options programme of the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency. He serves on the Board of ClimateWorks Foundation.
A frequent speaker and adviser to governments, industry and international organisations, he writes monthly columns across various platforms, has hosted or featured in several documentaries, and his 2019 TED Talk on air quality (Mission 80-80-80) has crossed 270,000 views. He was a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. He holds a D.Phil. from Oxford.