Kanika Chawla

Kanika serves as the Chief of Staff, working closely with the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative and CEO of SEforALL, and co-Chair of UN-Energy, to advance the twin objectives of energy access and energy transition at scale, especially in the context of the SDG Decade of Action. She engages with a wide range of government and private sector decision-makers and partners to identify levers that advance a just and inclusive energy transition. Her role includes the identification of strategic priorities, working on energy transition support offers, and serving as the Energy Sherpa to the UN Crisis Response Group. 

Kanika has twelve years of experience in clean energy and energy transition policy and markets. She previously led the UN-Energy programme at SEforALL, and has also worked at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) in New Delhi, where she ran the Renewable Energy programme and founded the CEEW Centre for Energy Finance. Kanika has also worked at the REN21 Secretariat in Paris, and was one of the authors of the REN21Global Status Report on Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency. Her expertise lies at the intersection of energy and finance, and she has worked extensively on the creation of well functioning clean energy markets in emerging economies. Kanika also works on the political economy of renewable energy and energy transitions. Her research has been used widely by governments, electricity regulators, international agencies and strategic philanthropies. She serves as a member of the Bureau of REN21, and continues to be a Non-resident Fellow at CEEW. 

Kanika holds an M.Sc in Economics and Development Economics from the University of Nottingham and an undergraduate honours degree in Economics from Miranda House, University of Delhi. She is fluent in English and Hindi and speaks basic French.