Particular topics that her research has addressed include environmental policy integration and mainstreaming, climate adaptation finance, global governance of climate adaptation, governance implications of planetary boundaries, and implementation of international environmental agreements.

Her early research focused on the national level and analysed concepts and tools like ‘new’ environmental policy instruments, strategic environmental assessment, and regulatory impact assessment. Thematically, her research has typically had a general focus on environment, climate and sustainable development, but she has also done specific analysis of climate adaptation, chemicals management, sustainable consumption, and waste policy.

Åsa first joined SEI in 2001. She received her PhD degree in environmental policy from the London School of Economics & Political Science in 2007. After completing her PhD degree in 2007, she has had several roles within SEI, as project leader, group leader and theme leader. She was a Post-Doc Researcher with the Stockholm Resilience Centre in 2010-2012, and Visiting Fellow at ANU Climate Change Institute, Canberra, in 2010 and at Macquarie University, Sydney, in 2017.