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Aditya Ramji
Director, Global South Centre on Clean Transportation, University of California, Davis
Speaker Biography:
Dr. Aditya Ramji is an Economist focusing on energy, transportation, and electric mobility. With over 15 years of experience across both policy research and private sector, his work is at the intersection of science-policy-diplomacy. He holds a PhD in Transportation Technology and Policy from the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS), University of California, Davis.
He currently serves as the Founding Director of the Global South Clean Transportation Centre at the University of California, Davis, overseeing research programs focused on advancing zero emission transport and EV supply chains in developing and emerging economies through the key pillars of policy, technology and finance. The program has key initiatives in Asia, Africa and Latin America, including facilitating international cooperation.
Prior to this, Aditya comes with experience in the automotive industry and in energy policy. He has and continues to serve as a trusted advisor in various capacities to international organizations and national governments . Recent engagements include advisory roles to the Governments of Mexico and establishing the California – Africa Climate and Trade Partnership with Kenya and Nigeria, with prior roles in India. He also co-founded the Council for Critical Minerals Development in the Global South, aimed at supporting resilient clean energy supply chains.
Abstract:
The tension between climate ambition and economic growth has sharpened, with conventional economic narratives reasserting themselves amid persistent global uncertainty. Developed economies are striving to renew their industrial bases, while emerging markets are rapidly reshaping geopolitics, trade, and manufacturing — ushering in what feels like a new era of industrialization. Against this backdrop, climate action has evolved. Clean technologies have firmly entered the core of industrial strategy. From electric vehicles and batteries to their supply chains, governments across Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe—and even the United States—are racing to secure competitiveness, jobs, and critical minerals. This moment demands a new paradigm: climate action framed as economic diplomacy. The question is no longer about the pathway for the transition, but whether we can do so in time, while managing trade-offs, avoiding false protectionism, and aligning policy, markets, and investment. We will need to get at the core of business principles for driving catalytic industrial action and drastically shift the way we do research, to rapidly bring science and evidence to policy and investment rationale. The global rush for EV supply chains and critical minerals raises a fundamental question: for what purpose, and under what conditions? In this presentation, we will take a dive into global EV supply chains, from electric vehicles to batteries to minerals - a journey around the world that hopefully will leave us with more questions and a quest to find solutions.