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New ways of funding and delivering modern energy cooking services in displacement settings is urgently needed to address the scale of the issue. This article on ‘Funding and Delivery Models for Modern Energy Cooking Services in Displacement Settings: A Review’ examines current practices and suggests innovative pathways for the future.

This article was published in Energies as part of the Special Issue on Clean Energy Innovations: Challenges and Strategies for Low and Middle Income Countries.

Read the journal article here.

I contributed to a new Modern Energy Cooking Services Briefing Note on Clean cooking in refugee camps and COVID-19: What lessons can we learn? Drawing on progress made in Rwanda, Uganda & Bangladesh, this briefing outlines lessons to be learned for implementing clean cooking in refugee camps in the context of challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read coverage of the briefing on the humanitarian information service Relief Web here and the full briefing note here.

This article published in Energy Research and Social Science addresses the question ‘Why firewood? Exploring the co-benefits, socio-ecological interactions and indigenous knowledge surrounding cooking practice in rural Nepal’. In the push to deliver clean cooking via modern cooking solutions, the co-benefits of traditional cooking practices are often overlooked. By exploring these co-benefits in the context of Nepal, we found that transition to clean cooking can be achieved by:

• localising modern cooking solutions by modifying the design to suit cultural and practical needs, while simultaneously
• improving traditional cooking practices to reduce negative effects, as fuel stacking is inevitable, and
• delivering modern cooking solutions as part of a holistic array of development interventions.

Read the journal article here.

Building on our previous work on Mapping synergies and trade-offs between energy and the Sustainable Development Goals this new journal article is the first to map the relationship between energy and the 169 Targets of the 2030 Agenda in a specific country and sector context. We found synergies between 80 (47%) of the SDG targets and off-grid solar systems in Rwanda. This showed how the sector can contribute to human development and well-being, build physical and social infrastructures, and achieve sustainable management of environmental resources.

Read the article here.

The Landscape Analysis of Modern Energy Cooking in Displacement Settings report was recently published as part of the Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) Programme. The report explores the drivers and constraints for the transition from traditional biomass fuels to modern energy cooking in displacement settings under three main themes: technological requirements; the role of different stakeholders; and policies and financial models. The report identifies five core priority areas of interest for the MECS humanitarian energy stream:

• opportunities for MECS transitions in urban and peri-urban displacement contexts
• MECS in community facilities and humanitarian institutions
• innovative financing of MECS in displacement settings beyond grant funding
• quality data on energy access and
• inclusive models of MECS provision in and for the displaced and host communities. 

You can read the report here.

I am delighted to contribute a chapter on ‘Community energy resilience for a new climate urbanism’ to a book on Climate Urbanism: Towards a Critical Research Agenda edited by Vanesa Castán Broto, Enora Robin and Aidan While. The book is the outcome of an international workshop on the changing relationship between cities and climate change hosted by the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield in September 2019.

My chapter shows how communities play an active role in ensuring energy resilience, and argues that community energy resilience will be a fundamental part of the urban transformations required to address climate change. The chapter interrogates the idea of community resilience in the context of climate urbanism, and explores the strategies that communities use to access energy in the face of shocks and stresses in two rapidly urbanising countries, Nepal and Malawi. The chapter contributes a new perspective on climate urbanism by examining how climate change is shaping how energy services are organised and governed at the local level.

You can order your copy of the book here.

This report presents the results of two online workshops funded by the Energy and Economic Growth programme on the impact of COVID-19 on Malawi’s energy sector, and the coping mechanisms employed by different stakeholders within the sector. The workshops were held in collaboration with Mzuzu University in Malawi.

Read the report here.

A new article on ‘A systems thinking approach to stimulating and enhancing resource efficiency and circularity in households’ has just been published in the Journal of Cleaner Production. It analyses three integrated household energy supply and waste management models, and shows that switching to solar PV offers significant greenhouse gas reduction and cost savings. Further benefits can be attained by increasing resource recovery from waste.

Read the article here.

I’m very pleased to announce that a summary of the outcomes of ‘community energy resilience and electricity systems’ workshops in the UK, Nepal and Malawi is now available.

The report gathers together the expertise of 75+ practitioners, policymakers and researchers from 13 countries. We call for further action and research on:
1. Energy system design to improve energy system resilience
2. The role that community plays in ensuring energy system resilience, and
3. The role energy systems play in community resilience.

This project was a collaboration with the Energy and Economic Growth programme and the Low Carbon Energy for Development Network with support from the UK Energy Research Centre Whole Systems Networking Fund. A huge thank you to all the participants for contributing their expertise!

Read the executive summary and download the report here.

Our journal article on ‘Decentralization: the key to accelerating access to distributed energy services in sub-Saharan Africa?’ has just been published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. Drawing on the experiences of Kenya and Malawi, the paper explores the inter-linkages between distributed energy services and decentralized local governance systems.

Read the article here.

I am delighted to contribute a chapter on ‘Towards community energy resilience’ to a book on Energy Access and Forced Migration edited by Owen Grafham from Chatham House. The book brings together author-teams of practitioners, academics, businesses and policymakers in an interdisciplinary dialogue about the best way of approaching energy provision for the forcibly displaced.

My chapter, co-authored with Niraj Subedi, develops the emerging concept of community energy resilience. Firstly, we examine definitions of resilience and community resilience and how they relate to energy services. Secondly, we discuss energy resilience in the broader context of the community and the research needs identified during a series of workshops with experts from energy access and disaster risk reduction. Thirdly, we take a deep dive into the case study of Nepal after the major earthquake in 2015, an event that displaced 2.6 million people. Lastly, we will reflect on the concept of community energy resilience in relation to forced migration and avenues for further research.

You can order your copy of the book here.