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Johannes Urpelainen
Director and Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Professor of Energy, Resources and Environment
Founding Director, Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy (ISEP)
About
Johannes Urpelainen is the Director and Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Professor of Energy, Resources and Environment at Johns Hopkins SAIS and the Founding Director of the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy (ISEP). He received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 2009 and spent the next eight years at Columbia University.
Johannes is the award-winning author of four books and over a hundred refereed articles on environmental politics, energy policy, and global governance. He teaches action-oriented classes on energy and environmental policy to equip the next generation of global leaders with deep knowledge, advanced analytical skills — and a passion for transformational social change. As one of the world’s top energy policy experts, Johannes frequently advises governments, international organizations, and the private sector on energy and environment.
As the Founding Director of ISEP, Johannes is responsible for the vision, strategy, and general management of the initiative. His work under ISEP offers pragmatic but effective approaches to providing the world’s population with affordable and abundant energy at minimal environmental impact. In his spare time, Johannes reads biographies and tries to improve his Hindi.
Johannes is the award-winning author of four books and over a hundred refereed articles on environmental politics, energy policy, and global governance. He teaches action-oriented classes on energy and environmental policy to equip the next generation of global leaders with deep knowledge, advanced analytical skills — and a passion for transformational social change. As one of the world’s top energy policy experts, Johannes frequently advises governments, international organizations, and the private sector on energy and environment.
As the Founding Director of ISEP, Johannes is responsible for the vision, strategy, and general management of the initiative. His work under ISEP offers pragmatic but effective approaches to providing the world’s population with affordable and abundant energy at minimal environmental impact. In his spare time, Johannes reads biographies and tries to improve his Hindi.
Co-Written Books
Urpelainen, J. (2018) Escaping the Energy Poverty Trap: When and How Governments Power the Lives of the Poor. Cambridge: MIT Press
Urpelainen, J. (2018) Renewables: The Politics of a Global Energy Transition. Cambridge: MIT Press
Urpelainen, J. (2018) Activism and the Fossil Fuel Industry. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge
Urpelainen, J. (2018) Organizing Democracy: How International Organizations Assist New Democracies. Chicago: Chicago University Press
Urpelainen, J. (2014) Cutting the Gordian Knot of Economic Reform: When and How International Institutions Help. New York: Oxford University Press
Article Highlights
The Broad Impact of a Narrow Conflict: How Natural Resource Windfalls Shape Policy and Politics. 2018. Journal of Politics 80 (2): 630-646. [With Jasper Cooper and Sung Eun Kim]
Does Basic Energy Access Generate Socio-Economic Benefits? A Field Experiment with Off-Grid Solar Power in India. 2017. Science Advances 3: e1602153. [With Michaël Aklin, Patrick Bayer, and S.P. Harish]
Factors Affecting Household Satisfaction with Electricity Supply in Rural India. 2016.
Nature Energy 1: 16048. [With Michaël Aklin, Chao-yo Cheng, Karthik Ganesan, and Abhishek Jain]
It’s All About Political Incentives: Democracy and the Renewable Feed-In Tariff. 2016.
Journal of Politics 78 (2): 603-619. [With Patrick Bayer]
Instruments of Political Control: National Oil Companies, Oil Prices, and Petroleum Subsidies. 2015. Comparative Political Studies 48 (3): 370-402. [With Andrew Cheon and Maureen Lackner]
International Bureaucrats and the Formation of Intergovernmental Organizations: Institutional Design Discretion Sweetens the Pot. 2014. International Organization 68 (1): 177-209. [With Tana Johnson]
Political Competition, Path Dependence, and the Strategy of Sustainable Energy Transitions. 2013. American Journal of Political Science: 57 (3): 643-658. [With Michaël Aklin]
A Strategic Theory of Regime Integration and Separation. 2012. International Organization 66 (4): 645-677. [With Tana Johnson]
In the News
Reforming global fossil fuel subsidies: How the United States can restart international cooperation.
Johannes Urpelainen wrote for Brookings Institution, 07/14
The case for U.S. cooperation with India on a just transition away from coal.
Johannes Urpelainen wrote for Brookings Institution, 04/20
State policy and lobbying in a federal system: Evidence from the production tax credit for renewable energy, 1998–2012.
Johannes Urpelainen wrote in State Politics and Policy Quarterly, 04/16
What Biden faces if he wants to get the climate change effort back on track.
Johannes Urpelainen wrote in The Washington Post, 01/21
Time for the United States to compete with China in global clean energy finance.
Johannes Urpelainen interviewed in Energi Media, 1/16
Why the United States should compete with China on global clean energy finance.
Johannes Urpelainen wrote for Brookings Institution, 01/07
Opposition MLAs face wrath of Indian voters after natural disasters, not ruling party’s.
Johannes Urpelainen wrote in ThePrint, 12/21
Delhi’s fight against air pollution could get a boost if science was decolonized.
Johannes Urpelainen cited in Scroll.in, 11/11
To green China's overseas energy finance, the U.S. must offer cleaner alternatives.
Johannes Urpelainen wrote in The Hill, 10/5
Beyond COVID: Hopes for U.S. rebound, virtual the new normal, European revival.
Johannes Urpelainen cited in PV-Tech, 6/12
Four more years of Donald Trump could ‘delay global emissions cuts by 10 years’.
Johannes Urpelainen quoted in Carbon Brief, 5/27
A sustainable economic recovery from COVID-19: The G-20 must end fossil fuel subsidies now
Johannes Urpelainen wrote in Global Policy, 5/13