Two Indian origin innovators—Trishna Nagrani and Anish Malpani— are among the 2026 cohort of the Yale Emerging Climate Leaders Fellowship named by Yale’s International Leadership Center, part of the Jackson School of Global Affairs.
“With this fourth cohort of the Fellowship, we continue to build a global community of practitioners driving real-world climate solutions,” said Paul Simons, a retired U.S. ambassador and the program’s founding director.
“This year’s Fellows are at the forefront of climate action in their countries and sectors,” said Emma Sky, director of the International Leadership Center.
Trishna Nagrani, is leading the Asian expansion for Climeworks, the world’s leading carbon removal company.
Prior to Climeworks, she co-authored two roadmaps on AI applications for climate change mitigation sponsored by the Japanese Government. She has also researched on U.S., China, and EU’s green bond markets as a Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University.
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Previously, she invested in digital infrastructure companies at the World Bank Group (IFC) based in Washington, D.C. covering emerging markets globally; co-founded an AI-enabled fintech platform in London; and was a financial advisor at Lazard.
Anish Malpani is building Without®, a Pune-based social enterprise that transforms “unrecyclable” plastic waste into high-quality products while lifting waste-pickers out of poverty. Using patented chemo-mechanical technology, Without created the world’s first sunglasses made from chip packets, which sold out in six days and garnered global media attention including Shark Tank India, Business Insider, and Euronews.
The venture embeds dignity into every layer of its supply chain – providing former waste-pickers with full-time employment featuring 2-3x income increases, ESOPs, health insurance, and upskilling programmes. Without has won multiple national innovation awards, including the UN’s Circular Design Challenge 2023.
Anish brings 12+ years of experience across finance, operations, and social impact spanning Texas, New York, Guatemala, Kenya, Dubai, and India. An Acumen Fellow (2025) and Global Good Fund Fellow (2025), he holds a Finance degree from UT-Austin’s McCombs School, a social innovation certificate from Kenya’s Amani Institute, and a chemical engineering patent for plastic recycling technology.
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After five years in corporate America, Anish quit his New York finance job to pursue meaningful impact. This journey took him through Guatemala cultivating entrepreneurs, Kenya building social enterprises, and London studying AI and machine learning.
The five-month program offers an opportunity for 16 rising climate and clean energy practitioners from across the developing and emerging world to strengthen their leadership skills, broaden technical proficiencies, deepen professional networks, and explore policy solutions with top global clean energy and climate change leaders.
Fellows begin the program in February at the Yale campus in New Haven, taking part in a series of interactive sessions with prominent faculty and practitioners active in advancing climate initiatives that form the heart of Yale’s innovative Planetary Solutions program.
The fellowship then continues with a series of remote learning sessions featuring top international experts on the full range of policy issues associated with climate change and the clean energy transition. The program concludes in June with an in-person week in Paris, including dialogues with top international energy and climate change leaders.