By Amrtansh Arora
New Delhi: The Director of the Becker Friedman Institute and Faculty Director at the Tata Centre for Development at UChicago along with being the Chief Economist to former American president Barack Obama, Michael Greenstone is at the forefront of ‘envirodevonomics’, a study of the correlation between environmental and developmental economics. After acquiring a BA in economics from Swarthmore College, Michael received a PhD in economics from Princeton University. He currently serves as the Director of the Energy Policy Institute at Chicago (EPIC) and is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
As Chief Economist for former President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, he co-led the development of the United States Government’s social cost of carbon. Michael was part of the team that released the Indian Climate Prospectus in Delhi on October 31. Along with The Tata Institute for Development at the University of Chicago, he released its first report pertaining to the effects of climate change in developing economies, particularly India. In its report, the Climate Impact Lab claimed that more than 1.5 million more Indian lives will be lost each year by 2100 if India continues on its course of high greenhouse gas emissions.
In an exclusive interview with Mirror Now’s Amrtansh Arora, Michael spoke about the objectives of the climate lab and why India encroaches a significant spot in the global fight against climate change.