Aleh Cherp

Aleh Cherp is a professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy. His research focuses on feasibility of energy transitions and climate strategies, political economy of energy transitions, and energy security. He has widely published on these topics in leading academic journals including Nature Energy, Nature Climate Change, One Earth, Environmental Research Letters, and Energy Policy. In 2019-2023, he co-led a work package on multidimensional feasibility in Exploring National and Global Actions to reduce Greenhouse gas Emissions (ENGAGE) project. In 2014-2015 he led a project on energy transitions  within the Transformations to Sustainability Program of the International Social Sciences Council. In 2008-2012 he was the Convening Lead Analyst on Energy Security of the Global Energy Assessment. He currently serves as a Lead Author in Working Group 3 (Mitigation of Climate Change) of the Seventh Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

In 2024, Prof. Cherp was among the world's top 2% scientists according to Stanford/Elsevier's Top 2% Scientist Rankings.

Since 2005, Prof. Cherp has been the coordinator for MESPOM, Erasmus Mundus Masters course in Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management, which CEU operates jointly with Lund University (Sweden), the University of Manchester (UK), and the University of the Aegean (Greece). In 2010-2012 Prof. Cherp served as the Academic Secretary and in 2008-2012 as the Research Director of CEU.

Outside CEU, he served as a panel chair and an evaluator of the European Research Council, and the rapporteur of the Advisory Working Group on the Environment (including Climate Change) of the European Commission. Prof Cherp has also undertaken professional work for the European Environment Agency (EEA), UNDP, UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank, and USAID among others. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals including Energy Research and Social Science. 

Aleh Cherp co-leads an inter-university research group on energy transitions, POLET and also holds a professor's appointment at the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund University, Sweden. 

Prior to joining CEU in 2000, he earned his Masters and PhD at Manchester University and worked with NGOs and the United Nations. His first degree was in Physics.