GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE

Research:

Low-carbon Development

Over one billion people in the developing world still lack access to electricity, and over two billion still rely on fuelwood or charcoal for cooking and heating.

A Datang International Power Generation Co. Ltd. wind farm in Gansu province, China. China has set a target for renewable energy consumption of 40 percent of the market by the year 2050. Credit: Markel Redondo / Panos

Extending access to energy to poor people is a crucial part of the development agenda, as is meeting the energy needs for industry as the economies of developing countries grow. But meeting these needs in a carbon-constrained world is a huge challenge.

Researchers in IDS' Climate Change Team, Globalisation Team and in the STEPS Centre are exploring low-carbon development from a number of angles. We particularly focus on the way that policies, politics, institutions and markets shape innovation and investment in, and use of, low-carbon energy.

IDS research on low-carbon development includes:

How emerging economies, particularly China and India, pursue transitions from high-carbon to low-carbon development. This research includes the approaches these countries take to investments in renewable energy and to low-carbon innovation. It also examines the influence their emergence has on climate change mitigation, energy security and economic competitiveness, and the implications for other countries. We focus on the impacts both on developed countries and low-income countries, particularly in Africa.
Whether and how investment in and use of low-carbon technologies, particularly in low-income countries, can be part of a development model that reduces poverty and transforms livelihoods to make people less vulnerable to climate change.

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Assessment of large and small hydropower options

Global climate change requires climate-friendly low carbon energy options. Hydropower is a low carbon energy sources which is globally abundant and has a high potential. Hydropower has been used around the world for centuries. In recent years, both small and large hydropower developments have seen increased use. More details

China as the new 'shaper' of global development

The pace and significance of China's rise has implications for both traditional and emerging powers, as well as for developing countries. This plays a role for energy and climate change and for many other development issues. Rising Powers Network is a new network that will place China as the new 'shaper' of global development under the ESRC's Rising Power's Programme. More details

China Low Carbon Platform

A new knowledge-sharing web platform supporting an international network for low carbon energy and low carbon development in China. More details

'Enabling Environments' for low carbon economies: implications for low-income countries

Technology transfer and its financing are building blocks of the Bali Action Plan under the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change. This research will contribute to a greater understanding of the best options. More details

European Development Co-operation on climate change to 2020

The aim of this project is to synthesize and understand the evidence base on CC and EU development policy in key areas of CC and development programming and to map out possible future influences on these policy area More details

Global Power Shift and Low Carbon Transformation

Two transformations are likely to dominate the first half of the twenty-first century. One is the shift in economic power from the West (North America and Western Europe) to the East (China and the East Asian production system). The second is the transition from a high to low carbon economy. The first shift is at an advanced stage; the second at an early stage. In this line of work we discuss how the first shift affects the second. Does the global power shift make the low carbon transformation faster and cheaper? More details