Mahak Agrawal

Mahak Agrawal is an urban planner and a former United Nations fellow. As a Shardashish Scholar
and Environmental Fellow at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs,
Mahak earned her second master's in public administration. She earned her first master’s degree in
urban planning from the School of Planning and Architecture Delhi. Mahak currently works at
Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy and leads urban adaptability efforts with ITA Committee
on Underground Spaces (ITACUS).

Recognized for her achievements in accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals in India through
public health initiatives, Mahak was nominated for the Gates Foundation’s 2021 Goalkeepers Global
Goals Award. In various capacities, she has worked with the Organization for Economic Co-operation
and Development; the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the
Government of India; and the Institute of Transport Economics, Oslo. Mahak was an expert reviewer
for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report and currently
reviewing the Synthesis Report of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. She has authored numerous
publications on sustainable urban development, public health, energy policy, and ESG-aligned corporate governance and has presented her works globally, including at the United Nations. In 2021,
she advocated for reimagining the life cycle of waste and its decarbonisation as a TEDx speaker. In
2019, she founded Spatial Perspectives as a platform to change the way we view pressing
urban-regional challenges.