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Uttara Narayan is interested in understanding the varieties of energy justice and their application across scales of the energy transition that hold differing degrees of power across actors. Her current research focuses on the relationship between energy demand and racialisation in the UK. Her work as part of CREDS focused on ways to envision racial justice within the UK's energy demand landscape. She is currently a joint-PI on the ACCESS Flexible Fund project, REPAIR (Research on Energy through PArticipatory Insights from community Representatives) that aims to engage with racially disadvantaged communities in East Oxford to understand their energy needs.

Previously, Uttara worked for the World Resources Institute on energy governance in India. She applied political economy and social justice principles to clean energy transition interventions. This involved ensuring that decision-making instruments such as data and policy are made inclusive through the representation of multi-scalar actors. She also worked on expanding the interpretation of a just transition to consider the consequences of exclusion in utility-scale renewable energy installations.

Uttara holds an MA in Development Studies from IIT-Madras, and an MPP from the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. She pursued the latter with the help of the Chevening and Weidenfeld Hoffman Trust scholarships.

Projects

Publications

Fawcett, T. et al. (2024) “Using smart energy meter data to design better policy: prepayment meter customers, fuel poverty and policy targeting in Great Britain”, Energy Research and Social Science, 116.
Narayan, U., Higginson, S. and Eyre, N. (2023) “How can energy demand advance racial justice? The case of the UK”, in Proceedings of the 2023 BEHAVE Conference. European Energy Network, pp. 589–600.
Parrish, B. et al. (2023) “Capabilities approach to understanding fairness to participation in domestic demand response”, in Conference Proceedings. European Energy Network, p. 123.
Narayan, U. et al. (2023) “Negotiating a just transition: the case of utility-scale solar in semi-arid southern India”, Just Transitions: Gender and Power in India’s Climate Politics. Edited by S. Arora-Jonsson, K. Michael, and M. Kumar, pp. 171–191.
Bobrova, Y. et al. (2023) “Capabilities approach to understanding fairness to participation in domestic demand response”, in. British Institute of Energy Economics.
Palmer, J. et al. (2023) Finding the fuel poor and framing better policy. Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford.
Narayan, U. et al. (2023) “Negotiating a just transition”, in Just Transitions. Taylor & Francis, pp. 171–191.
Narayan, U. (2023) “Guide to racially just energy research”. CREDS.
Narayan, U. et al. (2023) “Negotiating a just transition: The case of utility-scale solar in semi-arid southern India”, in Arora-Jonsson, S., Michael, K., and Shrivastava, M. (eds.) Just Transitions. Routledge.
Poojary, V., Narayan, U. and Hingne, A. (2022) “A just transition to renewable energy: insights from India’s Pavagada Solar Park”, in Proceedings of the 28th International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference (ISDRS 2022). Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.