About

Denise Mauzerall is the William S. Tod Professor of Public and International Affairs and Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University. Her research focuses on analyzing the impacts of energy technology choices on air quality, public health, food security, and greenhouse gas mitigation. She conducts policy-relevant scientific research utilizing regional and global atmospheric chemistry and climate models, as well as atmospheric, agricultural, and epidemiological data. Her work often examines international energy financing of coal and renewable energy, contributing to the understanding of environmental and climate issues through her publications in top journals such as Nature, Nature Sustainability, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Professor Mauzerall holds a PhD in Atmospheric Chemistry from Harvard University, along with a master's degree in Atmospheric Chemistry from Harvard, a master's in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University, and a bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Brown University. She is a core faculty member at the Center for Policy Research on Energy and Environment (C-PREE) and associated faculty at multiple institutes including the High Meadows Environmental Institute, the Andlinger Center for Energy and Environment, and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies. Her academic interests include the analysis of energy technology impacts on air quality and climate, with recent research also exploring international energy financing of coal and renewable energy. She teaches courses on global environmental issues and climate change science and policy.

Research topics

• Business
• Economics
• Natural resource economics
• Environmental science
• Geography
• Political Science
• Engineering
• Ecology
• Economic growth
• Waste management
• Finance
• Environmental engineering
• Environmental protection
• Agricultural economics
• Atmospheric sciences
• Meteorology

Selected publications

• From air to rail: Carbon mitigation through modal shift in China’s intercity transport

  2026-03-13

  articleOpen access

  Decarbonizing the transportation sector is a critical component of global climate change mitigation strategies. Achieving net-zero emissions in aviation remains particularly challenging due to the sector’s heavy reliance on carbon-intensive liquid fuels, as well as the substantial climate forcing from non-CO2 effects such as contrails. In China, the rapid expansion of high-speed rail (HSR) provides a promising alternative to short- and medium-haul flights and has the potential to directly reduce aviation demand. However, the magnitude of its contribution to emission mitigation remains uncertain. In this study, we employ a difference-in-differences approach to quantify the causal impact of HSR introduction on domestic civil aviation in China. We estimate CO2 emissions from both aviation and HSR, and further assess the additional substitution and mitigation potential of HSR under a set of future scenarios. Our results show that, between 2008 and 2019, the introduction of HSR led to a 24% reduction in aviation-related CO2 emissions among city pairs connected by HSR. In 2019, CO2 emissions from civil aviation and HSR were estimated at 87.0 and 17.9 Mt, respectively. Given the existing aviation and HSR networks in 2019, HSR operations could reduce aviation CO₂ emissions by approximately 9.1 Mt (10%). Under enhanced substitution conditions—assuming passengers are willing to extend travel time by up to two hours when switching to HSR, combined with power system decarbonization and full-speed HSR operation—the net mitigation potential increases to 50.6 Mt (48%) for the combined civil aviation and HSR transport system. Our findings demonstrate that HSR expansion can deliver substantial climate benefits by decarbonizing the civil aviation sector. With rising environmental awareness, continued electricity decarbonization, and accelerated HSR development, significantly larger emission reductions can be achieved through intermodal substitution.

  PublisherDOI

• US EV Battery Supply Chain Strategy

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-03-16

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• US EV Battery Supply Chain Strategy

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-03-16

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• US EV Battery Supply Chain Strategy

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-03-16 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Supplementary material to "Surface PM _2.5 Air Pollution in 2022 India: Emission Updates, WRF-Chem Model Evaluation, and Source Attribution"

  2025-11-20

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Overcoming barriers and seizing opportunities for smart meters in developing countries: Insights from a large-scale field study in India

  Energy Research & Social Science · 2025-02-20 · 5 citations

  articleCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Surface PM _2.5 Air Pollution in 2022 India: Emission Updates, WRF-Chem Model Evaluation, and Source Attribution

  2025-11-20

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Abstract. India experiences some of the highest PM2.5 concentrations globally. Understanding the spatiotemporal variations of PM2.5 and its source attribution requires robust air quality modeling supported by up-to-date emission inventories. Here we present the first WRF-Chem model evaluation and source attribution analysis for India for 2022, supported by updates in sectoral emission inventories and model schemes. We incorporate an updated residential emission inventory reflecting recent transitions to cleaner fuels in Indian households and develop a plant-level inventory for Indian coal-fired power plants. Further major improvements include model updates to the secondary organic aerosol scheme and an improved representation of near-surface pollutant mixing. Collectively our improvements result in a simulation with annual PM2.5 bias of only 0.2±16.9 μg/m3 (0 ± 31 %) across 288 surface monitoring sites in South Asia. We find that, compared to earlier studies, in 2022 India's residential sector remained the dominant source of PM2.5 in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, but nationally ranked second in population-weighted (PW) mean PM2.5 concentrations contributing 15 % (7.3 μg/m3). Instead, industrial emissions emerged as the largest domestic contributor to national PW mean PM2.5 (18 %, 8.6 μg/m3), with urban hotspots including Delhi and Mumbai. The power sector contributions ranked third nationally (13 %, 6.1 μg/m3) and was particularly influential in central India. Transboundary transport contributed more than any individual domestic source nationally (27 %, 12.8 μg/m3). These findings highlight the benefits of India's partial residential sector transition toward cleaner fuels, while underscoring the growing consequence of industrial and power sector emissions that have limited pollution controls.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Implementing pollution controls in India’s coal power plants and utilizing renewable energy: Synergies and trade-offs for air quality, public health and climate.

  2025-03-15

  preprintOpen access

  India experiences some of the highest ambient PM2.5 pollution concentrations in the world, which led to an estimated 1.67 million premature deaths in 2019. The power sector alone accounts for 20% of PM2.5-related deaths in the country, making it the highest contributor to PM2.5-related mortality per unit of generating capacity globally. In addition, a transition from coal power to renewable energy in India is critical for meeting global climate targets, while currently India’s CO2 emissions are rapidly rising. With India's electricity demand projected to quadruple between 2022 and 2047, understanding the environmental trade-offs between various power sector expansion pathways, particularly the effects of continuing to operate coal power plants without pollution controls, implementing pollution controls on them, or increasingly implementing renewable energy (RE) is critical for weighing the impact of the future power sector on air pollution, public health and climate.We have developed an integrated assessment framework to investigate the current and future air quality, public health, and carbon emission implications of India’s power sector operation. In addition, our analysis also considers the climate effects associated with aerosols from power sector, which can influence regional radiative forcing and temperature patterns. We have constructed a detailed, plant-level emission inventory for India’s coal-fired power plants, which had a total installed capacity of 212 GW in 2022. We then implemented our plant-level coal power emission inventory in the WRF-Chem 4.6.1 air quality model to simulate the impact of various possible power sector expansion pathways on regional air pollution and radiative forcing resulting from various aerosol distributions.We also developed a new tagging scheme in WRF-Chem that attributes simulated PM2.5 concentrations to individual power plant emissions and evaluates the location-specific impacts of these emissions on air quality and public health. This approach allows us to identify those power plants with the largest adverse impacts on public health. This information can then be used by policy makers in determining power generation and public health priorities.

  PublisherDOI

• Guidelines for Modeling and Reporting Health Effects of Climate Change Mitigation Actions

  UNC Libraries · 2025-06-26

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Modeling suggests that climate change mitigation actions can have substantial human health benefits that accrue quickly and locally. Documenting the benefits can help drive more ambitious and health-protective climate change mitigation actions; however, documenting the adverse health effects can help to avoid them. Estimating the health effects of mitigation (HEM) actions can help policy makers prioritize investments based not only on mitigation potential but also on expected health benefits. To date, however, the wide range of incompatible approaches taken to developing and reporting HEM estimates has limited their comparability and usefulness to policymakers. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this effort was to generate guidance for modeling studies on scoping, estimating, and reporting population health effects from climate change mitigation actions. METHODS: An expert panel of HEM researchers was recruited to participate in developing guidance for conducting HEM studies. The primary literature and a synthesis of HEM studies were provided to the panel. Panel members then participated in a modified Delphi exercise to identify areas of consensus regarding HEM estimation. Finally, the panel met to review and discuss consensus findings, resolve remaining differences, and generate guidance regarding conducting HEM studies. RESULTS: The panel generated a checklist of recommendations regarding stakeholder engagement: HEM modeling, including model structure, scope and scale, demographics, time horizons, counterfactuals, health response functions, and metrics; parameterization and reporting; approaches to uncertainty and sensitivity analysis; accounting for policy uptake; and discounting. DISCUSSION: This checklist provides guidance for conducting and reporting HEM estimates to make them more comparable and useful for policymakers. Harmonization of HEM estimates has the potential to lead to advances in and improved synthesis of policy-relevant research that can inform evidence-based decision making and practice. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP6745.

  PublisherDOI

• Prioritizing demand-side applications for clean hydrogen to maximize environmental and economic benefits

  2025-03-15

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Clean hydrogen will play an indispensable role in decarbonizing “hard-to-abate” sectors. However, it is not a “one-size-fits-all” solution because clean hydrogen production currently entails low energy efficiency, high costs, limited supply and risks of leakage.  U.S. policy efforts to date have focused on the supply of clean hydrogen.  However, prioritizing demand applications that maximize environmental and economic benefits is critical. Here we evaluate clean hydrogen’s decarbonization potential in a variety of energy-intensive sectors in the U.S. circa 2035.  We identify oil refining, ammonia production, and steelmaking as “no-regret” sectors, whereas on-road transport and trains fall into the “do-not-use” category. We compare the implications of policymakers GHG mitigation objectives and stakeholder profit maximizing objectives and find that current supply-side subsidies are insufficient to ensure optimal clean hydrogen allocation. Sector-specific demand-side policies are required to align priorities of policymakers and stakeholders to maximize the potential benefits of clean hydrogen.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Larry W. Horowitz

  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

  85 shared

• Wei Peng

  National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center

  47 shared

• Vaishali Naïk

  NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory

  34 shared

• Mi Zhou

  Princeton Public Schools

  33 shared

• Fabian Wagner

  International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

  32 shared

• Junfeng Liu

  Lishui University

  30 shared

• Arlene M. Fiore

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  25 shared

• Junnan Yang

  Bengbu Medical College

  24 shared

Education

• PhD

  Harvard University

  1996