Poornima Kumar

Assessing the systemic and climate impacts of digitalisation in daily life

Poornima Kumar (she/her) is a DPhil candidate at the Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and Environment. She is part of the iDODDLE project, funded by the European Research Council. Her doctoral research employs systems analysis methods to examine the systemic and climate impacts of digitalisation in daily life in UK households, with a focus on the role of trust, risk perception, and privacy concerns in shaping digital service adoption.

Poornima completed the MSc in Carbon Management at the University of Edinburgh in 2020. She was funded by a Commonwealth Scholarship and a Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation Scholarship. She completed the MSc in Environmental and Infrastructure Planning at the University of Groningen in 2014, supported by an Erasmus Mundus scholarship. She holds an undergraduate degree in architecture from Anna University, India.

Previously, Poornima worked with CSTEP India, on balancing India's developmental goals with its decarbonisation and net zero targets. She contributed to the development of a national-level multisectoral system dynamics model (SAFARI) exploring decarbonisation scenarios for India. Within this, her particular focus was developing the buildings module, looking at the implications of meeting India’s housing shortage,  energy demand in buildings, and interdependencies with other sectors and resources. She has been involved in consortium projects bringing together energy sector experts and policymakers to discuss India’s energy sector transformation, and scenario development for long term climate compatible growth.

Poornima is part of the IIASA-RITE EDITS (Energy Demand changes Induced by Technological and Social innovations) network.

• Chatterjee, S., Mastrucci, A., Niamir, L., Ashok, K., Sreenivas, A., Dukkipati, S., ... and Ürge-Vorsatz, D. (2024) Balancing energy transition: Assessing decent living standards and future energy demand in the Global South. Energy Research & Social Science, 103757.
• Wilson, C., Agnew, M., Amanta, F., Van Fan, Y., Kumar, P. and Seger, M. (2024) Evidence Synthesis of Indirect Impacts of Digitalisation on Energy and Emissions. technology, 99: 107033.
• Amanta, F., Kumar, P., Seger, M. and Vrain, E. (2024) The Impacts of Digitalised Daily Life on Climate Change. British Academy Discussion Papers on 'What are the possibilities of a good digital society?
• Mastrucci, A., Niamir, L., Boza-Kiss, B., Bento, N., Wiedenhofer, D., Streeck, J., ... and van Ruijven, B. (2023) Modeling Low Energy Demand Futures for Buildings: Current State and Research Needs. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 48(1): 761-792.