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Welcome to my website! My name is Benjamin Attia, and I'm an energy transition researcher and systems modeler and a student of the energy transition, particularly in emerging and developing economies. I collect much of my public-facing work on this site, mainly in the form of research publications, written articles, recorded presentations, and press engagements. I hope you find something insightful while you're here!
I am the Research Lead for Energy, Climate, and Sustainability at the BlackRock Investment Institute, where I lead the internal research function on energy transition scenario modeling to understand physical and transition risks and investment opportunities in deep decarbonization. This research directly guides asset allocations for BlackRock's sustainable investing portfolios and shapes execution strategy for the firm's many investment teams financing climate infrastructure around the world. I also provide research and advisory on energy systems, climate change and the sustainable development goals to various investment teams. I am a part-time doctoral researcher focused on measuring the effects of novel climate finance instruments on flows to infrastructure in the Global South at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford. And I conduct affiliated research on the energy transition and energy access issues with various partners and as a Non-Resident fellow at The Energy for Growth Hub, The Payne Institute for Public Policy, and the James E. Rogers Energy Access Project at Duke University. I was a 2021 National Fellow at the Clean Energy Leadership Institute. I was previously a Principal Analyst in the Energy Transition practice at Wood Mackenzie, a global consultancy providing market research, analytics, and advisory services across the energy and commodities sectors, where I built and led the firm's coverage of power sector transitions in emerging markets, primarily in Africa and the Middle East. Before Wood Mackenzie, I worked solar market research at GTM Research, in solar asset management and rural electrification at SunEdison, and conducted regulatory research for the US utility sector at the National Regulatory Research Institute. I hold a Masters of Energy & Environmental Policy and an undergraduate degree in economics from the Biden School of Public Policy & Administration at the University of Delaware. |