CIERP Alumni Perspectives: A Conversation with Kartikeya Singh

By Max Fu

In 2021, COP26 seized the attention of much of the world. But it was at another COP over a decade prior – COP16, in Cancun, Mexico – where Dr Kartikeya Singh’s interest in applying to the PhD program at the Fletcher School was encouraged. At COP16, Dr Singh met Professor Kelly Sims Gallagher at a plenary session, and had the opportunity to attend a reception that Fletcher was hosting for diplomats. Having already attended the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Dr Singh found the interdisciplinary nature of Fletcher to be the ideal place for him to enhance and deepen his existing background, by exploring environment and climate-related issues through different lenses.

Even before his current role and activities, Dr Singh had developed an impressive background in sustainable development, gaining experience in engaging and advising governments, forging projects and strategies for international healthcare and energy engagement, and all the while travelling extensively across the globe for work. Dr Singh’s previous experience includes three years spent at CSIS, where he facilitated several agreements between subnational entities in the US and India (e.g. between Tamil Nadu and Massachusetts), helping state-level energy offices think about international cooperation over adopting a sole domestic outlook. In so doing, Dr Singh helped shape strategic energy dialogues between US and Indian states, and essentially, created a template for what strategic energy partnerships could look like, as well as the process for achieving them.

Today, Dr Singh is the Director of Programmes at the Stichting SED Fund. The SED Fund – which stands for Sustainability, Equity, and Diversity – supports governments and civil society in economic development initiatives which come in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with the aims of creating jobs and building a better future. A particular focus of the SED Fund is its support for a just clean energy transition. As such, Dr Singh considers the important work that he does in line with impact investing in relation to strategies for the post-COVID, climate constrained era. In his role as Director of Programmes at the SED Fund, Dr Singh works to support strategies to align our economic and financial systems, development agenda, and infrastructure building for our new world.

For instance, India is one of the countries in which the SED Fund does important work. Dr Singh shared how one of the SED Fund’s approaches has been to identify partners that are able to provide technical assistance to state or central government entities, where there is a desire by those entities to undertake work to support partners through grants to meet specific agendas. Broadly speaking, these partners, while quite diverse, are working in the clean energy transition space. One example is the SED Fund’s supporting of a utility business plan competition through New Energy Nexus. In essence, New Energy Nexus India runs challenges where electricity utilities provide problem statements of the problems they need addressed, and businesses and start-ups compete to offer solutions to these problems. This has promoted a willingness for utilities to engage in the start-up and innovation space in India, supporting innovators and firms who want to be able to provide solutions. In all, this promotes the creation of a more climate-aligned system which is ready to integrate more renewables, reduce costs, provide clean and affordable electricity, and create jobs.

Another example of the key initiatives by the SED Fund and Dr Singh is the West Bengal innovation network that was just launched last month. This network is a platform to provide the connective tissue between various stakeholders, including academic institutions, industry, investors, the government, and existing incubators and accelerators in the state of West Bengal. In essence, the aim is to “turbo-charge” the green tech innovation landscape in a state that has historically been an industrialized state, but today might be regarded as part of ‘India’s Rust Belt’. This provides an opportunity to infuse new energy into the landscape, by providing for entrepreneurial venture support in terms of seed grants to budding entrepreneurs in this space. Beyond that, it also creates a staffing capacity of network managers that can constantly feed information to the entrepreneurs, incubators and accelerators, government programmes, research institutions, and investors. This engenders a culture of rich innovation – in the mold of Silicon Valley!

Reflecting on the professional and personal journey which has led him to his current role, Dr Singh is grateful to now consider himself in a better position, through his work at the SED Fund, to financially support just clean energy transition strategies. But his experiences have not been without their challenges!

Dr Singh tells me how – and this could apply to any organization – it can be difficult to navigate regime changes and shuffles, particularly when one is trying to engage or work with governments. Plans may well have to be adapted in response to political changes or shifts. Dr Singh also mused that perhaps the biggest challenge he has faced thus far, is having to enter the philanthropic space in the time of a global pandemic. This has posed difficulties ranging from the inability to travel to where partners are, to doing grant-making from afar, to focusing on a geography that was badly affected (even shutting down) as a result of multiple waves of the pandemic. With severe disruptions and many lives lost during the time of the pandemic, and even as the world hopefully begins to emerge from the pandemic, philanthropic capital takes on new meaning.

And Dr Singh’s advice to Fletcher students who may be considering taking a similar path to his? Try to focus on institutions that are trying to solve the problems, rather than those belonging to the incumbent structures. That said, there is nothing wrong with being part of legacy institutions that are, for instance, dependent on the fossil fuel value chain. In those instances, Dr Singh advises – take the opportunity to effect change from the inside! The only way true change occurs is when we bring everyone along.

In this vein, Dr Singh also points out that companies and organizations need not be too wedded to the fossil fuel value chain – it is time to “put our foot on the gas to get off the gas”. A growing focus on deep electrification and developing new technologies and business models is good for our environment and can provide jobs.

Dr Singh’s final piece of advice is to look out widely for these opportunities. If possible, try to spend time in Asia, Africa, and other emerging markets, where there has been tremendous deployment of these new efforts.

And what lies ahead in our planet’s future? Dr Singh sees every dollar spent in the post-COVID climate recovery effort as important for building the kind of planet we need to be living in. Dr Singh recognizes that the building back better project goes on globally, and that an opportunity is presenting itself to us, where everything we build now can be climate resilient and climate smart. We celebrate Dr Singh as a Fletcher alumnus who will undoubtedly be in the thick of this crucial work that lies ahead! ∎

Max Fu is an MBA candidate at The Fletcher School at Tufts University