Advancing Sustainable Development Through Energy, Finance, and Environmental Economics: An Interview with Dr. Abraham Ayobamiji Awosusi
If you were to describe your research in one sentence to someone outside your field, what would you say — and why does it matter?
At the core of my research is a sustained effort to understand how can nations pursue growth, energy security, and modern development without undermining the environmental sustainability on which life and long term prosperity depend. This matters because it has far reaching implications for public policy, human well being, and the quality of the world bequeathed to future generations.
What has been the most unexpected finding or insight in your research journey so far?
This insight has stayed with me, and it has changed the way I think about development itself. It has taught me that progress is not simply a matter of growth, or even of adopting cleaner technologies, but of how different forces are aligned within a society. In many ways, this has been the most unexpected finding of all: that sustainability is not automatic, and it is not guaranteed by good intentions alone. It is something that must be carefully built through coherent choices in energy, finance, innovation, and public policy.
Do you see your work as primarily advancing theory, solving practical problems, or bridging both? How do you position your research?
So I would position my research as empirically grounded, policy-relevant scholarship that is informed by theory but ultimately tested by its usefulness in addressing real economic and environmental challenges.
How do you approach research questions that do not yet have clear methods or established frameworks?
What follows from that, in practical terms, is a process of methodological discipline and adaptation. I usually begin by clarifying the conceptual mechanism the study seeks to explain, and then carefully examine the nature of the data and the structure of the phenomenon in order to determine whether an existing framework is adequate or whether it must be refined, integrated with other approaches, or thoughtfully modified. I do not treat methodological uncertainty as a weakness. I treat it as part of the intellectual responsibility of research. Some questions require established tools; others require a more inventive but still rigorous combination of approaches. Across my research journey, especially in environmental, energy, and applied econometric studies, I have found that the most meaningful work often emerges precisely when one is willing to let the problem define the strategy of inquiry.
Looking at your field today, what do you think is still misunderstood or underexplored?
What I find still underexplored in my field is how uncertainty, whether in policy, politics, or the wider geopolitical environment, can quietly but powerfully derail energy transition and weaken ecological sustainability by discouraging long-term renewable investment, slowing technological adjustment, disrupting policy continuity, and pushing economies back toward short-term, carbon-intensive choices, which is why my work increasingly treats uncertainty not as a background condition but as a central force shaping whether environmental ambition is translated into durable ecological progress.
How do collaborations—whether interdisciplinary or international—shape the direction of your work?
Collaboration has made me a better researcher because it has taught me not to think in isolation. It has exposed me to other ways of asking questions, other methods of answering them, and other national realities that challenge easy assumptions. That has been especially valuable in my field, where issues like energy transition and sustainability are shaped by many forces at once. So I would say collaboration has helped give my work more depth, balance, and real-world relevance.
About the Researcher
