Publications

Latest publication lists are available below (click on the logo):

Doctoral thesis

Debnath, R. (2021). Contextualising energy justice in low-income built environment: Towards data-driven policy interventions for addressing distributive injustices in slum rehabilitation housing of the Global South (Doctoral thesis). https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.78443 

Peer-reviewed journals 

1. Bardhan, R., Debnath, R., and Mukherjee, B. (2023). Factor in gender to beat the heat in impoverished settlements, Nature, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02632-3 

2. Debnath, R., Creutzig, F., Sovacool, B.K., and Shuckburgh, E. (2023). Harnessing human and machine intelligence for planetary scale climate action, npj Climate Action, Nature Portfolio, https://doi.org/10.1038/s44168-023-00056-3

3. Debnath, R., Bardhan, R., and Bell, M. (2023). Lethal heatwaves are challenging India's sustainable development. PLOS Climate, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000156

4. Debnath, R., Reiner, D. M., Sovacool, B. K., Müller-Hansen, F., Repke, T., Alvarez, R. M., & Fitzgerald, S. D. (2023). Conspiracy spillovers and geoengineering. iScience, Cell Press, 106166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.106166 

5. Debnath, R., van der Linden, S., Sovacool, BK, and Alvarez, RM (2023) Facilitating system-level behavioral climate action using computational social science. Nature Human Behaviour, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01527-7 

6. Isah, A., Dioha, M.O., Debnath, R., Abraham-Dukuma, M.C., and Butu, H.M., (2023) Financing renewable energy: Policy insights from Brazil and Nigeria. Energy, Sustainability and Society, BioMed Central https://doi.org/10.1186/s13705-022-00379-9 

7. Debnath, R., Ebanks, D., Mohaddes, K., Roulet, T., and Alvarez, RM, (2023) Highly polluting fossil firms reframe climate communication on social media. Nature Scientific Reports (Revise & Resubmit)

8. Ali, M., Couto, L.C., Unsworth, S., and Debnath, R. (2023) Bridging the divide in energy policy research: Empirical evidence from global collaborative networks. Energy Policy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2022.113380 

9. Debnath, R., Bardhan, R., Shah, D.U., Mohaddes, K., Ramage, M.H., Alvarez, RM., and Sovacool, BK (2022) Social media enables people-centric climate action in the hard-to-decarbonise building sector. Scientific Reports, Nature Portfolio https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-23624-9 

10. Peng, Z., Debnath, R., Bardhan, R., and Steemers, K., (2022) Machine learning-based evaluation of dynamic thermal-tempering performance and thermal diversity for 107 Cambridge courtyards. Sustainable Cities and Society, Elsevier, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2022.104275  

11. Debnath, R., Bardhan, R., Misra, A., Hong, T., Vida, R., Ramage, M.H. (2022) Lockdown impacts on residential electricity demand in India: A data-driven and non-intrusive load monitoring study using Gaussian mixture models. Energy Policy, Elsevier https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112886 

12. Debnath, R., Bardhan, R., Reiner, D. M., and Miller, JR (2021) Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental dimensions of electric vehicle adoption in the United States: A social-media interaction analysis. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.111707 

13. Muza, O and Debnath, R. (2021) Disruptive innovation for inclusive renewable policy in sub-Saharan Africa: A social shaping of technology analysis of appliance uptake in Rwanda. Renewable Energy, Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2020.12.091 

14. Debnath, R., Darby, S., Bardhan, R., Mohaddes, K., Sunikka-Blank, M., Coelho, A. C. V., Isa, A., (2021) Words against injustices: A deep narrative analysis of energy cultures in slum rehabilitation housing of Abuja, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro for just policy design. Energy Research & Social Science, Elsevier https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101892 

15. Debnath, R., Mittal, V. and Jindal, A. (2021) A review of challenges from increasing renewable generation in the Indian Power System: Lessons for Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020. Energy & Environment, Sage https://doi:.org/10.1177/0958305X20986246.

16. Debnath R. and Bardhan R., (2020) India nudges to contain COVID-19 pandemic: a reactive public policy analysis using machine-learning based topic modelling, PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238972 (Impact: covered by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India across embassies around the world; more than 30 news coverage in national and international newspapers, see Altimetric = 305)

17. Debnath, R., Darby, S., Bardhan, R., Mohaddes, K., & Sunikka-Blank, M. (2020). Grounded reality meets machine learning: A deep-narrative analysis framework for energy policy research. Energy Research & Social Science, Elsevier https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101704 (Altimetric = 25)

18. Bardhan, R., Debnath R., Gama, J., & Vijay, U., (2020) REST framework: A modelling approach towards cooling energy stress mitigation plans for future cities in warming Global South, Sustainable Cities and Society, Elsevier https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102315

19. Debnath, R.; Simoes, G.M.F.; Bardhan, R.; Leder, S.M.; Lamberts, R.; Sunikka-Blank, M. (2020) Energy Justice in Slum Rehabilitation Housing: An Empirical Exploration of Built Environment Effects on Socio-Cultural Energy Demand. Sustainability, MDPI, https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/7/3027

20. Debnath, R., Bardhan, R., Sunikka-Blank, M. (2019): How does slum rehabilitation influences appliance ownership? A structural model of non-income drivers, Energy Policy, Elsevier, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2019.06.005 (Coverage in the HindustanTimes national-daily newspaper, Altimetric = 14)

21. Debnath, R., Bardhan, R., Sunikka-Blank, M (2019): Discomfort and distress in slum rehabilitation: Investigating the rebound phenomenon using a backcasting approach, Habitat International, Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2019.03.010 (Altimetric = 5)

22. Bardhan, R., Debnath, R., Jana A (2019): Evolution of sustainable energy policies in India since 1947: A review, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley (Invited paper); https://doi.org/10.1002/wene.340 (Altimetric = 7)

23. Bardhan, R., Debnath, R., Malik, J., Sarkar, A (2018): Low-income housing layouts under socio-architectural complexities: A parametric study for sustainable slum rehabilitation, Sustainable Cities and Society, Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2018.04.038  

24. Debnath, R., Bardhan, R., (2018): Resource Symbiosis Model through bricolage: A livelihood generation assessment of Indian Village. Journal of Rural Studies., Elsevier https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2018.03.010

25. Bardhan, R., Debnath, R., Jana, A., Norford, L.K (2018): Investigating the local mean age of air with the health care-seeking behaviour of low-income tenement housing in Mumbai. Habitat International Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2017.12.007 (Altimetric = 7)

26. Debnath, R., Bardhan, R., Banerjee, R (2017): Taming the killer in the kitchen: mitigating household air pollution from solid fuel cookstoves through building design. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy; Springer Nature https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-016-1251-7

27. Debnath, R., Bardhan, R., (2016): Towards daylight inclusive byelaw: Daylight as an energy saving route for affordable housing in India. Energy for Sustainable Development, Elsevier https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2016.06.005

28. Debnath, R., Bardhan, R., Banerjee, R (2016): Investigating the age of air in rural Indian kitchens for sustainable built-environment design. Journal of Building Engineering, Elsevier https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2016.07.011 

29. Bardhan, R., Debnath, R., Bandopadhyay, S (2016): A conceptual model for identifying the risk susceptibility of urban green spaces using geo-spatial techniques. Modelling Earth System and Environment, Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-016-0202-y 

Blogs

1. Debnath, R. (2022), Placing people at the heart of net-zero transition, The Scholar, https://www.thescholar.online/post/placing-people-at-the-heart-of-net-zero-transition  

2. The Horizon Tracker (2022), How social attitudes affect adoption of electric vehicles, https://adigaskell.org/2022/01/18/how-social-attitudes-affect-adoption-of-electric-vehicles/ [Based my research]

3. Bennett Institute of Public Policy (2022), What it takes to decarbonise buildings?, https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/blog/what-will-it-take-to-decarbonise-buildings/ [Refering to our House of Commons report]

4. Bardhan, R. and Debnath, R. (2022), Embodied Carbon: Breaking Construction Dependencies, Building and Cities, https://www.buildingsandcities.org/insights/commentaries/embodied-carbon.html 

5. Bennett Institute of Public Policy (2022), What lessons does the pandemic hold for the future of energy policy in India?, https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/blog/energy-policy-india/ 

6. London School of Economics (2021), The incompatibility of Nudge and Co-Design as tools for policymaking, https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2021/07/22/the-incompatibility-of-nudge-and-co-design-as-tools-for-policymaking/  [Refers to my research]

7. Observer Research Foundation (2021), India's enduring urban housing shortage: The case of upgrading informal settlements, https://www.orfonline.org/research/indias-enduring-urban-housing-shortage/ [Refers to my research]

8. IEA (2021), Better energy efficiency policy with digital tools, International Energy Agency, Paris https://www.iea.org/articles/better-energy-efficiency-policy-with-digital-tools [Contributing author]

Policy Reports/ White papers 

1. Cervantes Barron, K; Debnath, R and Cullen, J (2022) How can Lao PDR become the Low-Carbon "Battery of Asia"?, Climate Compatible Growth Programme COP27 Policy Brief Series, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7056288 

2. The Alan Turing Institute (2022), Automating perfusion assessment of sublingual microcirculation in critical illness, Data Study Group, September (2021), https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6799096 

3. UK Government (2022), Building to net zero: costing carbon in construction, House of Commons, Environmental Audit Committee, UK Government, https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/22427/documents/165446/default/ [Contributed through CNMI]

4. TAH (2022), Mass timber: Challenges & Potential Solutions, Timber Accelerator Hub, Association for Sustainable Building Production (ASBP), https://asbp.org.uk/asbp-news/asbp-report-mass-timber [Contributed through CNMI]

5. IEA (2021), Empowering Cities for a Net Zero Future, International Energy Agency, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/empowering-cities-for-a-net-zero-future [Contributing lead author]

6. IEA (2021), Renewables Integration in India, International Energy Agency, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/renewables-integration-in-india [Contributing author]

7. Debnath, R, Sagar, A and Babu, S (2021) India: The Future we want in 2050, COP-26 UN Climate Change Conference- UK 2021 https://assets.website-files.com/61166d5bea6b0f5cb2ea9a7c/6138d1a759fb599865b2132c_COP26_India%20(1)(1).pdf 

8. Debnath, R., Sagar, A., & Babu, S. (2021). COP 26 Futures We Want - India Country Profile. Cambridge Open Engage. https://doi.org/10.33774/coe-2021-ns37b 

9. IEA (2021), Energy Efficiency 2021, International Energy Agency, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-efficiency-2021 [Contributing lead author]

10. Ramage, MH, ...., Debnath, R. (2021) UK Parliament Environmental Audit Committee Call for Evidence: “Sustainability of the Built Environment”, Cambridge Open Engage, https://doi.org/10.33774/coe-2021-bjtwz
    [Policy white paper for the UK Parliament's Research Briefing: https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pb-0044/]

11.  Debnath, R., Bardhan, R., Shah, D., Koronaki, A., Bukauskas, A., Colman, A., . . . Ramage, M. (2021). Climate repair through built environment: Decarbonising UK’s building sector through energy efficiency and natural materials. Cambridge Open Engage. https://doi.org/10.33774/coe-2021-30w2x
    [Policy white paper for the Royal Institute of British Architect's Built for the Environment Report: https://www.architecture.com/knowledge-and-resources/resources-landing-page/built-for-the-environment-report] 

12. Reyes, N., Rodríguez, B., Wiegand, E., Zilic, F., Ramage, M., Bukauskas, A., Debnath, R,. . . Ahumada, M. (2021). Achieving zero carbon emissions in the construction sector: The role of timber in decarbonising building structures. Cambridge Open Engage. https://doi.org/10.33774/coe-2021-hgd6q-v2 [UN COP26 briefing document from Chile and CNMI]. 

Selected Conferences

1. Debnath, R., (2020): Deep-narrative analysis for policy support, AI-UK 2020, The Alan Turing Institute, UK https://www.turing.ac.uk/events/ai-uk-2020-digital-poster-exhibition (selected as one of UK’s top 20 AI research) 

2. Debnath, R., (2020): Energy Justice in Poverty: Policy modelling using computational social sciences, Global Young Scientists Summit (GYSS) 2020, Singapore. https://gatesopenresearch.org/posters/4-12 (nominated by National Research Foundation Singapore).

3. Debnath, R. (2019): Energy justice in poverty. ASEAN Emerging Research Conference, Cambridge (*best oral presentation)

4. Debnath, R. (2019): Invisible drivers of energy use in poverty. Gates Day of Research 2019, Jesus College, University of Cambridge. (*best poster)

5. Bardhan, R., Debnath, R., (2018): Evaluating building material based thermal comfort of a typical low-cost modular house in India. Materials Today: Proceedings, Elsevier; 5:1P1, pp 311-317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2017.11.087

6. Debnath, R., Bardhan, R., Jain, R.K. (2017): A data-driven and simulation approach for understanding thermal performance of slum redevelopment in Mumbai, India. 15th International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA), San Francisco, USA. http://www.ibpsa.org/proceedings/BS2017/BS2017_810.pdf

7. Debnath, R., Bardhan, R., Jain, R.K. (2016): A data-driven design framework for urban slum housing: Case of Mumbai, 3rd ACM Systems for Energy-Efficient Built Environments (BuildSys’16), Stanford, USA. https://doi.org/10.1145/2993422.2996406

8. Debnath, R., Bardhan, R. (2016): Daylight Performance of a Naturally Ventilated Building as Parameter for Energy Management. Energy Procedia, Elsevier; 90:382-394. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2016.11.205

Working papers 

1. People-centric Emission Reduction in Buildings: A Data-driven and Network Topology-based Investigation, Cambridge Working Papers in Economics No. 2202 (https://ideas.repec.org/p/cam/camdae/2202.html)

2. Citations, funding and influence in Energy-Policy research on Developing Economies, Janeway Institute Working Papers Series - Cambridge Working Papers in Economics No. 2216 (https://www.janeway.econ.cam.ac.uk/publication/jiwp2207) 

3. Fossil industry as a green propaganda machine: Evidence from historical Twitter interactions (Collaborators: California Institute of Technology)

4. Lethal heatwaves are challenging sustainable development in India (Collaborators: Yale University)

5. Conspiracy spillover on solar geoengineering: A deep learning-based assessment (Collaborators: MCC Berlin, Sussex, Boston Uni, Aarhus Uni, Cambridge Centre for Climate Repair)  

6. Financing renewable energy: Policy insights from Brazil and Nigeria (Collaborators: ETH Zurich, Stanford Carnegie)

7. Vegan food market sustainability in the US: A systems-theory approach (Collaborators: Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Texas, University of Houston)

8. Chewing or eschewing meat: Consumption and anti-consumption among vegetarians and vegans 

Invited talks and presentation

1. (2022) Computational Social Science for Climate Action, Twitter Sustainability Summit, Twitter- London HQ, UK

2. (2022) Digitalisation and energy markets in Global South, Data Science and AI for Sustainability Conference, Cambridge, UK

3. (2022) People and net-zero transition: Lessons from Computational Social Sciences, Centre for Net Zero, Octopus Energy, London, UK

4. (2022) Placing people at the heart of net-zero transition, Cambridge University Behavioural Insight Unit, UK

5. (2021) Energy justice using Natural Language Processing, at University of Bonn, Germany

6. (2021) Digitalisation and energy policy at Energy Efficiency Division, International Energy Agency, France

7. (2021) Energy justice in informality at Engineering and public policy guest lecture series, Carnegie Mellon University, USA 

8. (2021) Contextualising energy justice in poverty: Towards data-driven deep-narrative analysis at Laboratory of Social Machines, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

9.  (2021) Energy narratives in slums and machine learning, RISE Unit, International Energy Agency, France 

10.  (2020) Deep-narrative analysis for discovering energy injustice in slums, UNDP Innovation Convention, UNDP-New York, USA

11.  (2020) Podcast, Energy Action Project, France

12.  (2019) Policy modelling for energy justice in poverty in the Global South, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, UK

13.  (2019) Environmental protection and sustainability drivers Panel Discussion - Gates Internal Symposium, University of Cambridge, UK

14.  (2019) Invisible drivers of energy demand in poverty, Energy Policy Research Group Summer Meet, University of Cambridge, UK

15. (2019) Remodelling appropriate resources for use in constrained settings}' Panel Discussion, Global Scholar Symposium, University of Oxford

16. (2019) Treasure hunt for energy sustainability in poverty: Empirical evidence from slum rehabilitation in India, Churchill College, UK