Energy use for cooling and heating plays a crucial role in our ability to cope with extreme temperatures. How will a warmer future climate affect global energy expenditures? Recent research from the Climate Impact Lab published in Nature reveals a deep divide between rich and poor populations that is likely to persist as the planet warms. While populations in rich countries are projected to save money by avoiding heating costs during winter, poor populations in the tropics will struggle to protect themselves from rising temperatures, as they remain unable to afford energy-intensive cooling technologies such as air-conditioning.
About Ishan Nath
Ishan Nath is an economist working on topics related to climate change, growth, trade, and development. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the International Economics Section at Princeton, and will join the research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco in July, 2022. Ishan completed his PhD in economics from the University of Chicago in 2019, where he stayed for a two-year postdoctoral fellowship with the Climate Impact Lab and the Energy Policy Institute at Chicago. Previously, Ishan completed a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Earth Systems at Stanford, and an MPhil in Economics at Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. When he is not thinking about economics, Ishan can be found either playing, watching, or talking about basketball.
About Ashwin Rode
Dr. Ashwin Rode is a director of scientific research at Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago and an investigator in the Climate Impact Lab. He received an A.B. in Economics from the University of Chicago, an M.S. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.