Dr Radhika Khosla

Associate Professor

Profile

Dr Khosla is Associate Professor at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford, Research Director at the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development, and Programme Leader in Zero Carbon Energy Use at Oxford’s ZERO Institute.

Her leading interdisciplinary research lies at the intersection of science and policy and focuses on extreme heat and the rapidly growing global demand for cooling—particularly in the context of urbanisation in the Global South. She is Principal Investigator of the Oxford Martin School’s programme on the Future of Cooling. She is also lead author of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Global Cooling Watch Report for 2023 and 2025, and acted as Special Scientific Advisor to the UK Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee for its 2023–24 inquiry on heat resilience and sustainable cooling.

Dr Khosla is Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Research Letters, a leading peer-reviewed journal. She has contributed to several international scientific reports such as the UNEP Emissions Gap Report (2020) and the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (2022). Her awards include the Honourable Mention for the Bina Agarwal Prize in Ecological Economics (2023), and she was named one of the most influential people in UK–India relations (2019). Her expertise has received international recognition and been cited in over 2,500 media articles and broadcasts, including TIME Magazine, The Economist, New York Times, Financial Times, CNN, BBC, and Reuters.

An urban climatologist by training, Dr Khosla has led research agendas and international knowledge networks on cooling, urban energy demand, sustainable development, and climate change policy. Using socio-technical systems analysis she examines these themes across levels of governance. Her research priorities include interrogating how energy use evolves with urbanisation, how we shape the future of global cooling demand mitigation while building resilience to unprecedented extreme heat , and how emerging economies can accelerate equitable energy transitions. She co-leads the work on examining just transitions in the private sector in developing economies for Oxford Net Zero. She also leads research on second life battery deployment, with a focus on India, for the Oxford Martin School’s Programme on Circular Battery Economies.

Dr Khosla is a Fellow of the Energy Institute and has served on advisory boards and steering groups such as the UK Government’s UK-India Advisory Board under the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Centre for Excellence in Sustainable Development (Goa Institute of Management) and the Smart Surfaces Coalition, among others. She also holds academic affiliations with the University of Pennsylvania and has previously worked with MIT, the Centre for Policy Research (India), and the Natural Resources Defense Council (USA). She has a PhD in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago and undergraduate and master’s degrees in Physics from the University of Oxford.

Projects

Teaching

Spaces, Infrastructure and Technology for Net Zero, Sustainable Development, for the MSc in Enterprise and the Environment

Current graduate research students

Media coverage

Radhika's research has been covered widely in over 2,700 articles across 53 countries since 2021, including by The New York Times, The Times, The Independent, Reuters, the FT, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, CNN, Time Magazine, Times of India, The Conversation and Carbon Brief. She has appeared on podcasts and broadcast television including the Sky News Daily Climate Show, Channel 5 News (1 million+ live viewers) and DW News (47,000 views).

The Conversation:

Carbon Brief (reposted at the World Economic Forum):

The Time Magazine:

‘Why India Has a Point at the Paris Climate Talks’

Publications

Journal (52)

Open

Kariyawasam N, Lizana J and Khosla R, ‘Moving Beyond Exposure: A Globally Comparable Framework for Heat Risk Assessment in Cities’ [2026] Sustainable Cities and Society 107535

Fahr P and others, ‘Quantifying the Health-Care Burden of Temperature in the National Health Service in England: An Economic Analysis of Resource Use and Costs’ (2025) 9 The Lancet Planetary Health 101373

Johnstone I and others, ‘The Revised Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting’ (2025) 20 Environmental Research Letters

Majumdar R and others, ‘Using Norm Networks to Map Cultural Differences in Predictors of Proenvironmental Behavior in the United States and India’ [2025] Motivation Science

Palafox-Alcantar P and others, ‘Servitization for the Energy Transition: The Case of Enabling Cooling-As-a-Service (CaaS)’ (2024) 482 Journal of Cleaner Production

Khosla R, ‘Q&Amp;A With Radhika Khosla: Taking the Heat Out of Warming Cities’ (2024) 7 One Earth 1335

Mazzone A and others, ‘Understanding Thermal Justice and Systemic Cooling Poverty from the Margins: Intersectional Perspectives from Rio de Janeiro’ (2024) 29 Local Environment 1026

Puttick S and others, ‘Knowledge, Crisis and (un)certainty in Climate Change Education in India’ (2023) 50 British Educational Research Journal 794

Trotter P and others, ‘The Role of Supply Chains for the Sustainability Transformation of Global Food Systems: A Large‐scale, Systematic Review of Food Cold Chains’ (2023) 27 Journal of Industrial Ecology 1429

Mazzone A and others, ‘Understanding Systemic Cooling Poverty’ (2023) 6 Nature Sustainability 1533

Miranda N and others, ‘Change in Cooling Degree Days With Global Mean Temperature Rise Increasing from 1.5 °C to 2.0 °C’ (2023) 6 Nature Sustainability 1326

Miranda N and others, ‘Metrics for the Emissions of F-Gas Refrigerants’ (2023) 58 Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments

Khosla R and others, ‘Can ‘Net Zero’ Still Be an Instrument of Climate Justice?’ (2023) 18 Environmental Research Letters

Lizana J and others, ‘Overcoming the Incumbency and Barriers to Sustainable Cooling’ (2022) 3 Buildings and Cities 1075

Steg L and others, ‘A Method to Identify Barriers to and Enablers of Implementing Climate Change Mitigation Options’ (2022) 5 One Earth 1216

Palafox-Alcantar P and others, ‘Circular Economy for Cooling: A Review to Develop a Systemic Framework for Production Networks’ (2022) 379 Journal of Cleaner Production

Mazzone A and others, ‘Indigenous Cosmologies of Energy for a Sustainable Energy Future’ (2022) 8 Nature Energy 19

Khosla R and others, ‘Sustainable Cooling in a Warming World: Technologies, Cultures, and Circularity’ (2022) 47 Annual Review of Environment and Resources 449

Fankhauser S and others, ‘The Meaning of Net Zero and How to Get It Right’ (2021) 12 Nature Climate Change 15

Khosla R, Jani A and Perera-Salazar R, ‘Health Risks of Extreme Heat’ (2021) 375 British Medical Journal

Miranda N and others, ‘Bibliometric Analysis and Landscape of Actors in Passive Cooling Research’ (2021) 149 Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

Mazzone A and Khosla R, ‘Socially Constructed or Physiologically Informed? Placing Humans at the Core of Understanding Cooling Needs’ (2021) 77 Energy Research and Social Science

Khosla R and others, ‘The What, Why, and How of Changing Cooling Energy Consumption in India’s Urban Households’ (2021) 16 Environmental Research Letters

Renaldi R and others, ‘Patent Landscape of Not-in-Kind Active Cooling Technologies Between 1998 and 2017’ (2021) 296 Journal of Cleaner Production

Khosla R and others, ‘Cooling for Sustainable Development’ (2020) 4 Nature Sustainability 201

Khosla R, Kamat A and Narayanamurti V, ‘Successful Clean Energy Technology Transitions in Emerging Economies: Learning from India, China, and Brazil’ (2020) 2 Progress in Energy

Creutzig F and others, ‘Systematizing and Upscaling Urban Climate Change Mitigation’ (2020) 15 Environmental Research Letters

Bhardwaj A and Khosla R, ‘Superimposition: How Indian City Bureaucracies Are Responding to Climate Change’ (2020) 4 Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space 1139

Ürge-Vorsatz D and others, ‘Advances Toward a Net-Zero Global Building Sector’ (2020) 45 Annual Review of Environment and Resources 227

Khosla R and Dubash N, ‘Development Challenge Around Multiple Objectives: Rethinking India’s Energy Policy’ (2020) 55 Economic and Political Weekly

Kamat A, Khosla R and Narayanamurti V, ‘Illuminating Homes With LEDs in India: Rapid Market Creation towards Low-Carbon Technology Transition in a Developing Country’ (2020) 66 Energy Research and Social Science

Khosla R, Sircar N and Bhardwaj A, ‘Energy Demand Transitions and Climate Mitigation in Low-Income Urban Households in India’ (2019) 14 Environmental Research Letters

Khosla R and Bhardwaj A, ‘Urbanization in the Time of Climate Change: Examining the Response of Indian Cities’ (2018) 10 Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change

Bhardwaj A and others, ‘More Priorities, More Problems? Decision-Making With Multiple Energy, Development and Climate Objectives’ (2018) 49 Energy Research and Social Science 143

Khosla R and Janda K, ‘India’s Building Stock: Towards Energy and Climate Change Solutions’ (2018) 47 Building Research and Information 1

Dubash N and others, ‘Erratum: India’s Energy and Emissions Future: An Interpretive Analysis of Model Scenarios (Environ. Res. Lett. (2018) 13 (074018) DOI: 10.1088 1748-9326 Aacc74)’ (2018) 13 Environmental Research Letters 089501

Dubash N and others, ‘India’s Energy and Emissions Future: An Interpretive Analysis of Model Scenarios’ (2018) 13 Environmental Research Letters

Dubash N and others, ‘India and Climate Change: Evolving Ideas and Increasing Policy Engagement’ (2018) 43 Annual Review of Environment and Resources 395

Cruetzig F and others, ‘Towards Demand-Side Solutions for Mitigating Climate Change’ (2018) 8 Nature Climate Change 268

Lamb W and others, ‘The Literature Landscape on 1.5 °C Climate Change and Cities’ (2018) 30 Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 26

Cohen B and others, ‘Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis in Policy-Making for Climate Mitigation and Development’ (2018) 11 Climate and Development 212

Khosla R, Sagar A and Mathur A, ‘Deploying Low-Carbon Technologies in Developing Countries: A View from India’s Buildings Sector’ [2017] Environmental Policy and Governance

Dubash N and others, ‘India’s Energy and Emissions Future: A Synthesis of Recent Scenarios’

Creutzig F and others, ‘Beyond Technology: Demand-Side Solutions for Climate Change Mitigation’ (2016) 41 Annual Review of Environment and Resources 173

Dubash N and Khosla R, ‘Recovering Key Strategic Concepts in India’s Climate Policy’ (2016) 51 Economic and Political Weekly 127

Khosla R, ‘Closing the Policy Gap: Building Energy Code Lessons from Andhra Pradesh’ (2016) 51 Economic and Political Weekly 66

Khosla R and others, ‘Towards Methodologies for Multiple Objective-Based Energy and Climate Policy’ (2015) 50 Economic and Political Weekly 49

Dubash N and Khosla R, ‘Neither Brake nor Accelerator: Assessing India’s Climate Contribution’ (2015) 50 Economic and Political Weekly 10

Knowlton K and others, ‘Development and Implementation of South Asia’s First Heat-Health Action Plan in Ahmedabad (Gujarat, India)’ (2014) 11 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 3473

Azhar G and others, ‘Heat-Related Mortality in India: Excess All-Cause Mortality Associated With the 2010 Ahmedabad Heat Wave’ (2014) 9 PLOS ONE e91831

Frederick J and Khosla R, ‘The Energy Balance of an Urban Rooftop: A Case Study Addressing Cloudiness and Evaporative Cooling’ (2014) 8 Advances in Building Energy Research 97

Khosla R and Dubash N, ‘Rethinking India’s Energy Policy: Development Challenge Around Multiple Objectives’ Economic and Political Weekly: a journal of current economic and political affairs

c-report (1)

Open

KHOSLA R, ‘The Role of Cooling Standards in Climate Adaptation to Extreme Heat’ (World Bank 2025)

Chapter (3)

Open

Lizana J and others, ‘Chapter Seven The Role of Data Science in Developing Heat-Resilient Communities’, Adapting to Urban Heat (Elsevier 2026)

Lizana J and others, ‘The Role of Data Science in Developing Heat-Resilient Communities’, Adapting to Urban Heat (Elsevier 2026)

Khosla R, ‘Energy: Electrifying the Capital’, Colossus the Anatomy of Delhi (2022)

Dataset (5)

Open

Jayaratne Kariyawasam N and others, ‘Global Dataset of Regions at the Frontlines of Cooling Poverty Risk’

Lizana J and others, ‘Global Land Surface Dataset of Heating and Cooling Degree Days from a Bias-Corrected HadAM4-Based Temperature Ensemble under 1.0ºC, 1.5ºC, and 2.0ºC Climate Scenarios.’

Miranda N and others, ‘Changes in Cooling Degree Days (CDD) Between the 1.5ºC and 2.0ºC Global Warming Scenarios’

Miranda N and others, ‘Changes in Cooling Degree Days (CDD) Between the 1.5ºC and 2.0ºC IPCC Scenarios.’

Jayaratne Kariyawasam N, LIZANA J and KHOSLA R, ‘Global Gridded Dataset of Cooling Degree Days Based on Air Temperature, Heat Index, and Universal Thermal Climate Index’

Conference paper (2)

Open

Miranda N and others, ‘Metrics for the Emissions of F-Gas Refrigerants’, Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments (Elsevier 2023)

Kapur D, Khosla R and Mehta P, ‘Climate Change: India’s Options’, Economic and Political Weekly (2009)

Pre-print (5)

Open

Lizana J and others, ‘Citizen Data for Global Mapping of Atmospheric Urban Heat Islands’

Miranda N and others, ‘From 1.5ºC to 2.0ºC: The Global Increase in Cooling Degree Days’

Miranda N and others, ‘Global Warming from Refrigerant HFCs Is Underestimated by Their CO2 Equivalent Emissions Within the Century’

Fanaian S and others, ‘‘Too Little, Too Much, Too Dirty’: The Evolution of Water Risk Governance Networks in the Intermediate City Of Guwahati, India’

Hepburn C and others, ‘Opening (Policy): A New Perspective on the Global Energy Transition’

Report (4)

Open

Fankhauser S and others, ‘How to Invigorate and Complete the Fossil Fuel Transition’ (Oxford Net Zero, University of Oxford 2026)

Abdelaziz O and others, ‘Global Cooling Watch 2025: the Free Degrees: How Sustainable, Passive-First Cooling Can Save Lives, Money and Food’ (United Nations Environment Programme 2025)

Axelsson K and others, ‘Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting (revised 2024)’ (Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford 2024)

Khosla R, ‘Global Cooling Watch 2023: Keeping It Chill: How to Meet Cooling Demands While Cutting Emissions’ (United Nations Environment Programme 2023)