CIERP Internships: Climate Policy Lab

Siddharth Jain, MALD ‘23

By Siddharth Jain

This summer I had the opportunity to work with Professor Kelly Sims Gallagher as an intern at the Climate Policy Lab at the Fletcher School – an internship that was the perfect opportunity to spend time working on the area I have chosen to specialize in – low carbon growth for emerging economies.

My decision to come to Fletcher as well as the classes I have taken so far were driven by the dual problems of climate change globally and poverty in emerging economies. During Professor Gallagher’s Innovation for Sustainable Prosperity course, I came to understand that climate change poses not just a threat but an opportunity, the opportunity to remake the world in a more equitable way. I thereafter sought to understand firstly, if good policy can catalyze the innovation of technological solutions needed to transition the global economy, and secondly, how emerging economies can spur growth by participating in this innovation and production of green technologies while reducing their emissions. The second question formed the basis for my internship.

The Climate Policy Lab is a research organization situated within the Fletcher School that conducts research and policy analysis to create an evidence base for decision makers to draw upon when deciding what climate policies to choose. The organization produces accessible publications, scholarly works, policy briefings and the like and my research over the summer was meant to help inform the new direction towards low carbon growth that the Lab had recently decided to take.

The internship itself was remote, allowing me to explore the city of Boston during my first summer here. Lots of new cafes were discovered! My main task was to conduct a literature review on research, case studies and data related to green growth as well as the academic basis for it in works on macroeconomic policy. The literature review dovetails nicely with my graduate thesis and allowed me the opportunity to make significant headway in the area. I was fortunate to be able to draw on Professor Gallagher’s extensive experience to guide what was my first academic research job and the general pace of work over the summer afforded me enough time to do plenty of background reading so I could understand the fields of study that were relatively new to me.

In closing, the work I did over the summer inspired me to consider a career in academia as well as provided me the opportunity to ascertain if I enjoyed long durations spent working on a few issues in great depth – a prerequisite for a doctorate. I came away with a thorough understand of the field I want to explore further and am glad for the opportunity. ∎

Siddharth Jain is a MALD candidate at The Fletcher School, Tufts University.