Imperial College London

Dr Ajay Gambhir

Faculty of Natural SciencesThe Grantham Institute for Climate Change

Senior Research Fellow
 
 
 
//

Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 6363a.gambhir

 
 
//

Location

 

Electrical EngineeringSouth Kensington Campus

//

Summary

 

Summary

Ajay Gambhir is a Senior Research Fellow at the Imperial College London Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment. His research addresses how society can transition to a low-carbon economy, considering the technologies and measures required to do so. He uses energy systems models at sub-national, national, regional and global scales to map out potential low-carbon transition pathways, with a particular focus on the processes that drive down low-carbon technology costs, thereby making their deployment more cost-effective.

Ajay has been at Imperial College since 2010, during which time he has been the scientific lead on a number of low-carbon pathways studies for the UK government as part of its AVOIDing dangerous climate change programme. He has also led and participated in ESRC and EPSRC studies on manufacturing innovation for the production of low-cost solar PV modules, energy storage innovation, and rural electrification using solar PV and batteries. Currently he is focusing on the political economy of low-carbon pathways and how to design policies to support an equitable transition.

Before joining Imperial College, Ajay was the Team Leader for EU and International Climate Change Economics at the UK Government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change. He has also worked in the UK’s Office for Climate Change, as part of the civil service team that prepared the initial draft of the Climate Change Act 2008, the world’s first climate legislation. He has also worked in the UK Committee on Climate Change, which he helped design and set up as part of his work on the Climate Change Act.

Ajay holds a first degree and MEng in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge, an MSc in Development Economics from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, and a PhD in Energy Economics from the Imperial College Centre for Environmental Policy.  

Publications

Journals

Gambhir A, Lempert R, 2023, From least cost to least risk: Producing climate change mitigation plans that are resilient to multiple risks, Frontiers in Climate, ISSN:2624-9553

Gambhir A, 2023, Powering past coal is not enough, Nature Climate Change, ISSN:1758-678X

Gambhir A, 2023, This really does change everything: attaining 1.5 degrees C needs all available mitigation levers, Environmental Research Letters, Vol:18, ISSN:1748-9326

Gambhir A, Xexakis G, Perdana S, et al., 2023, Expert perceptions of game-changing innovations towards net zero, Energy Strategy Reviews, Vol:45, ISSN:2211-467X

Moreno J, Van de Ven D-J, Sampedro J, et al., 2023, Assessing synergies and trade-offs of diverging Paris-compliant mitigation strategies with long-term SDG objectives, Global Environmental Change, Vol:78, ISSN:0959-3780

More Publications