Aarti Gupta is Professor of Global Environmental Governance with the Environmental Policy Group, Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University.

Her research is in the field of global environmental and climate governance, with a focus on transparency and accountability and the challenges of anticipatory governance of novel technologies (including biotechnology and climate engineering). She has published extensively in these fields, including the edited volume, Transparency in Global Environmental Governance: Critical Perspectives (2014, MIT Press).

At the Environmental Policy Group, Aarti coordinates the Governing Climate Futures research theme. She is the principal investigator of The Transformative Potential of Climate Transparency (TRANSGOV) project, funded by the Netherlands Organization for Research (NWO). She also co-leads the international REIMAGINE consortium project on anticipatory climate governance in vulnerable regions of the global South. She is a co-founder of the university-wide interdisciplinary REDD@WUR network consisting of over 80 researchers working on climate-forest interactions.

Internationally, she is a member of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Earth System Governance (ESG) research alliance, the largest network of social scientists working on sustainability, and a Coordinating Lead Author of the 2018 ESG Science Plan. She is Series Co-editor of the Cambridge Elements in Earth System Governance series (CUP), and was Associate Editor of the journal Global Environmental Politics (MIT Press) from 2012-2020. She has also been a member of the Academic Working Group on Climate Engineering Governance, and Vice-Chair of an EU COST Action on Transformations in Global Environmental Governance.

Aarti holds a PhD from Yale University, with a background in political science, international relations, and science and technology studies. Prior to moving to the Netherlands, she completed a postdoc at the Center for Science, Policy and Outcomes (CSPO), Columbia University, and a 2-year Global Environmental Assessment Fellowship at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She has combined this research trajectory with working outside of academia as well, including with the United Nations Development Programme in New York, Oxfam-Novib in the Hague, and Transparency International in Berlin.

Email: aarti.gupta@wur.nl

Main current research projects: 

Project leader TRANSGOV: This is an NWO-funded, four-year project on assessing the transformative potential of transparency in multilateral climate governance.  The project team includes two PhDs and a postdoc, as well as a network of international and national partners Overview: https://www.nwo.nl/en/research-and-results/research-projects/i/96/34296.html

Project co-leader REIMAGINE: This is a BNP-Paribas Foundation funded, three-year consortium project on anticipating climate futures in vulnerable regions of the global South. The project (a consortium with Utrecht and Oxford Universities) includes one PhD based at Wageningen and Utrecht and multiple other international and regional partners. Overview: https://group.bnpparibas/en/news/reimagine-re-imagining-climate-governance

Project supervisor CLIMGOV: This is a Wageningen Graduate School Post-Doc Talent funded 2 year project being executed by postdoctoral researcher Ina Moller on the political implications of contemplating climate engineering options in tackling climate change. Overview: https://www.wur.nl/en/Persons/Ina-dr.-IM-Ina-Moller.htm?subpage=projects

In addition to the above, Aarti Gupta also supervises 4 more individual PhD projects on transboundary climate impacts; the role of land-based climate financing mechanisms in combating drivers of deforestation; transparency in the multilateral climate regime; and sustainable development diplomacy. 

Aarti Gupta teaches introductory and advanced courses in international environmental politics and diplomacy, and lectures in courses on accountability in global environmental governance.  She has also taught courses in environmental policy: analysis and evaluation, as well as bachelors' thesis preparation. 

She is the recipient of 7 annual Wageningen Excellence in Education Awards over the period 2008 - 2019 (three for excellence in lecturing; and four for her course being in the top 25-30 at the University in a given year). In 2010, she was listed 2nd of 25 top lecturers at the University.

She is currently supervising 7 PhD students and various MSc thesis students in the areas of global environmental politics, forest and climate governance, and the science-politics interface.