Devyani Singh

Post-Doctoral Economist Fellow – Carbon Markets and Policy

Work

Areas of expertise:
Natural Climate Solutions, Energy Policy, Energy Transitions, Climate Policy, Environmental Finance

Devyani is leading a collaboration between EDF and partners on ensuring that the carbon credits for Natural Climate Solutions are high integrity, effective and equitable. She uses her past global and interdisciplinary expertise to work collaboratively with industry, academia, nonprofits, government and, Indigenous communities to find implementable solutions to complexities surrounding the use of NCS as climate mitigation tools. Devyani actively promotes engagement with policy makers and the public for evidence based decision-making.

Follow Devyani on Twitter: @Kumari_Devyani 

Background

Prior to starting at EDF, Devyani was a Post-Doctoral Fellow working on energy and climate policy at Harrisburg University. Her interdisciplinary research has included energy access and transitions in the Global South, air-quality (GHG emissions accounting), evaluating climate impacts of national policies, natural resource economics, environmental (carbon) finance, forest sustainability, and methane emissions from oil and gas production. As a result, she coordinated multiple research projects across sectors (industry, academia, government, Indigenous communities, and nonprofits) and countries (India, Canada, U.S.), where she led research design, research execution, and communication (via peer-reviewed papers, reports, presentations, social media, etc.). 

Outside of academia, Devyani has consulted on carbon markets and policy for New Forests Inc., and worked with the First Nations on non-timber forest products. In the past, Devyani worked as a Senior Financial Analyst for various Fortune 200 companies after obtaining an MBA in Finance. However, inspired by the magnitude and importance of global climate change, she changed career paths and obtained an M.Sc. in Environmental Science, and a Ph.D. in Energy and Climate Policy.

Education:
Ph.D. | Faculty of Forestry | University of British Columbia | 2012-2019
     Degree: Ph.D. in Forestry (Forest Resources Management). 

M.Sc. | School of Environment & Natural Resources | Ohio State University | 2010-2012
     Degree: Master of Environmental Science.

M.B.A. | School of Management | University of Iowa | 2005-2007
     Degree: Master of Business Administration - Finance. 
 

Publications

Daniel Raimi, Emily Grubert, Jake Higdon, Gilbert Metcalf, Sophie Pesek, Devyani Singh. The fiscal implications of the U.S. transition away from fossil fuels. Resources for the Future Working paper: https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/the-fiscal-implications-of-the-us-transition-away-from-fossil-fuels/ 

David Brand & Devyani Singh. 2014. What is needed to make markets for forest ecosystem services a reality? In: Forests and Globalization: Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Development. (pp. 185-201). Nikolakis & Innes, Editor. London: Routledge.

Devyani Singh, Chris Hugenholtz, Arvind Ravikumar. Field Performance of New Methane Detection Technologies: Results from the Alberta Methane Field Challenge. (under review). Pre-print at https://doi.org/10.31223/X5GS46 

Devyani Singh, Hisham Zerriffi, Rob Bailis, Valerie LeMay. Forest, Farms and Fuelwood: Measuring changes in fuelwood collection and consumption behavior from a clean cooking intervention. Energy for Sustainable Development. 61: 196-201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2021.02.002 

Devyani Singh, Ther Aung, Hisham Zerriffi. 2018. Resource Collection Polygons: A spatial analysis of woodfuel collection patterns. Energy for Sustainable Development. 45 (C), 150-158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2018.06.003   

Devyani Singh, Shonali Pachauri, Hisham Zerriffi. 2017. Environmental payoffs of LPG cooking in India. Environmental Research Letters. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa909d  

Devyani Singh, Britta Dosch, Christine Gerbode, Suzi Kerr, Julia Paltseva, Doria Gordon, Eric Holst, Kristin Kleisner, Gökçe Akin-Olçum, & Jason Funk. “Advancing effective and equitable crediting for Natural Climate Solutions: An Introduction.” EDF discussion paper.

Gary Bull, Sean Pledger, Devyani Singh, et al., 2014. Culturally Driven Forest Management, Utilization and Values: A Nuxalk First Nations Case Study. The Forestry Chronicle, 90:620-627. https://doi.org/10.5558/tfc2014-126  

Philippe Le Billon, Paivi Lujala, Devyani Singh, Vance Culbert. 2021. Greening a Just Recovery: Energy Transitions, Commodity Exporters, and the Covid-19 Pandemic. Climate Policy. DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2021.1965524