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Researcher

Indra Overland

Research Professor
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indra.overland@nupi.no
+(47) 901 26 516
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Summary

Research Professor Indra Overland heads NUPI’s Center for Energy Research and is Associate Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

He works on energy issues in Southeast Asia and Central Asia, especially Indonesia and Myanmar. He started working on Southeast Asia in 1992, worked as a long-term political observer in Cambodia for the Joint International Observer Group (JIOG), led cooperation with Chulalongkorn University, the Myanmar Institute for Strategic and International Studies (MISIS), the OSCE Academy, and has twice been a Visiting Fellow at the ASEAN Centre for Energy in Jakarta.

Indra Overland is coauthor of the IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report; has been published in Nature Energy; has been awarded the Marcel Cadieux Prize, the Toby Jackman Prize, the Kjetil Stuland Prize and “Kemp’s Best in Energy” (Reuters); and has been rated among the 300 most prolific researchers in Norway and the ninth most followed Norwegian researcher in social media.

He strives to communicate his research to the public and has been interviewed or cited by Al Jazeera, Associated Press, BBC World Service, Berlingske, Bloomberg, CBC, CNN, de Volkskrant, El País, Forbes, Financial Times, Helsingin Sanomat, Het Financieele Dagblad, Hokkaido Shimbun, Le Monde, Le Point, MSN, Newsweek, Politico, Rzeczpospolita, The Economist, The Guardian, The Japan Times, The Straits Times, The New York Times, The Telegraph, Times Literary Supplement, Toronto Star, Tribune de Geneve, Vietnam+, Wall Street China, Wall Street Journal, 24 Heures.

His recent research includes “ASEAN’s energy transition: how to attract more investment in renewable energy”, (Energy, Ecology and Environment, 2023), “Integrating 100% renewable energy into electricity systems: A net-zero analysis for Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar” (Energy Reports, 2023), “Moving beyond the NDCs: ASEAN pathways to a net-zero emissions power sector in 2050” (Applied Energy, 2022), “The ASEAN climate and energy paradox” (Energy and Climate Change, 2021), “Environmental performance of foreign firms: Chinese and Japanese firms in Myanmar”, Journal of Cleaner Production, 2021), “Vietnam's solar and wind power success: Policy implications for the other ASEAN countries” (Energy for Sustainable Development, 2021), “Sharing the Spoils: Winners and Losers in the Belt and Road Initiative in Myanmar”, Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 2020), “Local and global aspects of coal in the ASEAN Countries” (Handbook of Sustainable Politics and Economics of Natural Resources, 2020), The 6th ASEAN Energy Outlook” (ACE, 2020), “Impact of Climate Change on ASEAN International Affairs: Risk and Opportunity Multiplier” (NUPI 2017).

Expertise

  • Russia and Eurasia
  • Asia
  • Climate
  • Energy

Education

2000 PhD, Faculty of Earth Sciences and Geography, University of Cambridge

Aktivitet

Publications
Publications
Report

A Match made in Heaven? Strategic Convergence between China and Russia

This paper examines the strategic convergence between Russia and China. Strategic convergence is understood as the overlap of key objectives and interests with regard to long-term developments in world politics, which provides the basis for extensive tactical co-operation between two or more states. The paper focuses on the compatibility of Russia and China in terms of complementary economies, location and political outlook. The match between Russian natural resources and Chinese markets is examined in particular. The paper concludes that a closer relationship between the two countries in many ways would be of mutual advantage, but that it is far from certain that an alliance will develop.

  • Development policy
  • Diplomacy
  • Development policy
  • Diplomacy
Publications
Publications
Report

Norges bistand til urfolk : En realitetsorientering

Denne rapporten ser nærmere på norsk bistand til urfolk. Rapporten tar utgangspunkt i Norads statistiske database over de prosjekter som har rapportert urfolk som hovedmålgruppe i perioden 1999–2005. Databasen viser omfanget av det som rapporteres som urfolksbistand, samt fordeling på kanaler (organisasjonstyper) og geografiske områder. For å vurdere om statistikken gjenspeiler reell støtte til urfolk, har vi sett nærmere på arkivdokumentasjonen for et utvalg av disse prosjektene. Arkivutvalget er på 228 prosjekter og representerer nesten 50 % av de utbetalte midlene i hele perioden, og utgjør altså rundt 935 millioner kroner. I denne arkivgjennomgangen har vi bare funnet dokumentasjon på at 19 % av midlene i utvalget kan sies å være støtte til urfolk. Dette utvalget representerer 174 millioner kroner, mens de resterende 761 millioner kronene enten er feilkategorisert, uklart definert eller dreier seg om prosjekter der det ikke ble funnet dokumentasjon. Hvis man ser bort fra de midlene som har gått til prosjekter hvor det ikke ble funnet dokumentasjon i arkivene (tilsvarende 363 millioner), utgjør dokumentert urfolksbistand 30,5 prosent av totalen på 571 millioner kroner. Det er altså antakelig et stort misforhold mellom de tallene som oppgis for urfolksstøtte og realiteten. I kartleggingen har vi ikke benyttet strenge kriterier for hva som regnes som urfolksbistand. Det betyr at tallene som presenteres i denne rapporten, i seg selv urovekkende nok, kan sees på som et «best case scenario». I verste fall kan den virkelige tilstanden i norsk urfolksbistand være verre. På denne bakgrunnen anbefales en større gjennomgang av urfolksstøtten slik at den kan kvalitetssikres og gjenspeile politiske prioriteringer og målsetninger. Tilgang til arkivdokumentasjon er en svært omfattende og tidkrevende prosess, og dokumentasjonen er mangelfull og spredt. Det er dermed en stor utfordring å etterprøve de statistiske tallene for utviklingsstøtten. Med bakgrunn i dette anbefales det at rapporteringssystemet for urfolksbistand kvalitetssikres bedre. Rapporten peker også på at bistandsapparatet opererer med kategoriseringer av urfolk og urfolksbistand som ikke er klare nok, dette gjelder særlig begrepet «integrert urfolksstøtte».

  • Foreign policy
  • Foreign policy
Publications
Publications
Report

The battle for Azerbaijan : Azeri Perspectives on the Observation of the 2005 Parliamentary Elections and the Post-Election Period

This report seeks to highlight the role of international observer missions of the 9 November 2005 parliamentary election in Azerbaijan. It also presents in-depth assessments of the pre- and post-election situation in the country. The six articles that are presented in the volume have been produced by leading scholars or development practitioners in Azerbaijan. The report forms part of the ‘Network for Election Observation and Exchange’. This is project that is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

  • Diplomacy
  • Governance
  • Diplomacy
  • Governance
Publications
Publications
Report

Observing or participating in regime change? Kyrgyz perspectives on the role of international election observation missions in 2005

This report offers an in-dept analysis of the role of international election observation missions in during the political upheavals in Kyrgyzstan in 2005. It presents the work of three leading, young academics from Kyrgyzstan. The report forms part of the ‘NUPI Network for Election Observation and Exchange’. This is project that is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The starting point for the assessments presented here is the realisation that international election observer missions played a central part in the events that eventually lead to the toppling of President Askar Akaev’s administration in march 2005. Kyrgyzstan is also a case that highlights the immense challenges that face election observation missions in non consolidated democracies of the former Soviet Union. Many of these countries, Kyrgyzstan included, have developed traditions of deep-seated and sophisticated manipulation of election procedures. Given these preconditions, the three articles aim to assess from differing perspectives how election observation was conducted in the country in 2005.

  • Governance
  • Governance
Publications
Publications
Scientific article

Georgias roserevolusjon: forhistorien og etterspillet

Publications
Publications
Scientific article

Multilaterale institusjoner og kvasistater

Publications
Publications
Report

Defusing a Ticking Bomb? : Disentangling International Organisations in Samtskhe-Javakheti

This article examines how various organisations divide and coordinate their conflict prevention and development aid in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of southern Georgia, and how that coordination might be improved. There have been numerous early warnings of impending violent conflict and calls for conflict prevention in Samtskhe-Javakheti. Counter-claims have, however, been asserted that the region’s problem is in fact not one of potential violent ethnic conflict, but rather one of poverty and peripherality, and that exaggerated, uncoordinated early warning might in fact inflate conflicts that were not initially acute. At one point it seemed that the Samtskhe-Javakheti case would provide an example of uncoordinated and one-sided focus on conflict prevention and early warning on the part of international organisations, and its potentially detrimental consequences. An overview of the activities of the organisations, however, shows the contrary. A critical, sensitive and deconstructive perspective is already incorporated into their approach, and their activities are well coordinated. More formalised institutions are nonetheless needed to ensure the inclusion of large multilateral actors such as the World Bank and Council of Europe in the process, and consistent coordination in other regions too.

  • Conflict
  • Conflict
Publications
Publications
Report

A Gap in OSCE Conflict Prevention? : Local Media and Inter-Ethnic Conflict in the Former Soviet Union

This paper argues that local media have been of great importance in the escalation of inter-ethnic conflicts in the former Soviet Union, and that conflict prevention by the OSCE in the region initially did not focus appropriately on media issues. During the past few years, however, media issues have increasingly come to preoccupy the OSCE, chiefly in connection with human rights issues and freedom of speech, but to some extent also as an element of conflict prevention. The importance of local media for OSCE conflict prevention is analysed in terms of the activities of the High Commissioner for National Minorities and Representative on Freedom of the Media, and OSCE annual reports.

  • Russia and Eurasia
  • Russia and Eurasia
Publications
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