Jim Williams

Senior Fellow

Dr. Jim Williams is a professor of Energy Systems Management at the University of San Francisco and a senior fellow at Evolved.  He is an expert on the energy transition and was an early leader in decarbonization modeling. He helps produce Evolved’s Annual Decarbonization Perspective (ADP) and was the lead author of the original report on carbon-neutral pathways published in AGU Advances in 2021. He directed the Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP), an international consortium of research teams whose blueprints for decarbonization in the 16 highest-emitting countries strongly influenced the Paris Agreement. Dr. Williams has consulted on many aspects of energy planning and regulation for government, utility, and industry clients. In 2007, he led an analysis for the state of California on greenhouse gas reduction strategies that became a key input into the scoping plan that implements Assembly Bill 32, the state’s groundbreaking climate policy. He was lead author of an influential  2012 article in Science that highlighted the pivotal role of electrification in achieving deep emission reductions.  A Mandarin speaker, his research areas include the decarbonization of China’s electricity system.  He received his B.S. in Physics from Washington and Lee University, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Energy and Resources from U.C. Berkeley.