The Rising Powers, Clean Development and the Low Carbon Transition in Sub-Saharan Africa

Completed

Renewable Energy Sources
Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Environmental, social and economic impacts)

Basic and strategic applied research

SOCIAL SCIENCES (Development Studies)
AREA STUDIES (Middle Eastern and African Studies)

Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Policy and regulation)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Other sociological economical and environmental impact of energy)

Professor MJ Power
Geography
Durham University

Standard

ESRC

01 September 2012

31 May 2015

33 months

£582,179

North East

Evaluation

Professor MJ Power, Geography, Durham University

Dr HA Bulkeley, Geography, Durham University
Dr Y Duan, Institute of Policy and Management, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Professor PJ Newell, Sch of Global Studies, University of Sussex
Dr G Prasad, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Env, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Dr W Shen, UNLISTED, China Three Gorges University
Dr AP Smith, Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex
Prof J Watson, Bartlett Sch of Env, Energy & Resources, University College London

Project Contact, Chinese Academy of Sciences

The involvement of Rising Powers in clean energy systems in sub-Saharan Africa is often obscured by popular images of resource- and land-grabs. Seeking to engage more closely with a number of African states, businesses and communities in pursuit of diverse economic and political goals, the Rising Powers have increasingly come to incorporate renewable energy projects into their aid and loan portfolios in Africa. The depth, drivers, and outcomes of this activity are complex and contested in terms of both development and the implications for international energy and climate governance. This interdisciplinary research project seeks to examine how, why and to what extent China and Brazil are enabling the transition to low carbon energy systems in Southern Africa and to assess the consequent implications for the affordability, accessibility and sustainability of energy services in the region. The project will develop new frameworks for analysis in order to systematically compare the roles that China and Brazil are playing in facilitating the transition to low carbon energy systems in Africa and in particular will analyse how they are shaping the provision of energy services for productive uses (e.g. for cooking, lighting and mobility). Further, the project also seeks to assess the implications for the wider governance of energy and climate change at the local, national, regional and global scales. Empirically, the research project will seek to understand the Rising Powers engagement with African energy systems by looking at the range of actors, institutions, partnerships and policy-making processes involved and by identifying the key interests and beneficiaries being served by this co-operation. Using a combination of semi-structured interviews and community-based participatory research methods the research will also explore the dynamics of the transitions being created and enabled by China and Brazil in Southern Africa, which are uneven and differentiated technically, socially and spatially. Across the region they have each championed different technology sectors and energy services. Their impacts are also socially differentiated in that patterns of Chinese and Brazilian investment, innovation and infrastructure development benefit particular groups of society and have differential impacts on poverty and livelihoods. Further, the impacts China and Brazil are having on low carbon transitions appear to be spatially differentiated, not just between different countries in sub-Saharan Africa but also between urban and rural spaces within these countries. Thus the project seeks to examine the consequences of these dynamics for key issues of energy access and affordability, and in relation to wider development strategies. Addressing three of the ESRC Rising Powers programme objectives (namely 'sustainability and competitiveness', 'well-being and equity' and 'global governance') the project will thus produce detailed knowledge on thenature of Rising Power's investment, innovation and infrastructure development in the renewable energy sector in Southern Africa. It will also provide a detailed analysis of how South-South technology transfer and technology cooperation between the Rising Powers and Africa can work, including insights about the implications for innovation capacity, the appropriateness of specific technologies and the impact of current investment strategies which will be of particular use for government and the private sector, within and outside the region. Involving collaborations with UK government departments, with academic research partners in Brazil and China and with partners from the academic and NGO community in Southern Africa the project seeks to build capacity, to foster knowledge exchange and policy dialogue and to build cross-disciplinary and transnational research networks concerned with the role of the Rising Powers in facilitating low carbon transitions in sub-Saharan Africa

22/01/15