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Updates from Environment for Development, a global network of researchers solving the world’s most urgent environmental and development challenges.
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Newsletter from EfD
December 2023
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Dear friends of EfD,
Welcome to the last newsletter of an eventful 2023. Here you can get a brief update on EfD’s side events at COP28, a high-level roundtable on carbon pricing in India, training of policymakers on bioeconomic modeling in Nigeria, a stakeholder workshop on reduced dependence on woodfuels in Kenya and climate change-related risks to rivers in Patagonia. We also report on a series of new publications including a study on the gendered effects of climate change in rural India and a bioeconomic model to analyze the optimal combination of pastoral activities and wildlife conservation in the Serengeti ecosystem.
With this newsletter, we also wish you all a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Research Year.
Gunnar Köhlin, Director
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Gunnar Köhlin on the participation at COP28
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EfD and MCC side event at COP28. Photo: MCC.
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COP 28 in Dubai was the largest COP ever. With about 100,000 registered participants it was more than twice as large as last year's COP in Sharm-el-Sheikh, which was the largest by then. According to EfD Director Gunnar Köhlin, "it was the most amazing arena for networking since 'everyone' was there". Read about the EfD participation at the event!
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EfD India hosts roundtable discussion on a carbon pricing policy for India
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Round table discussions. Photo: EfD India.
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A high-level roundtable debated the role of carbon pricing in India’s climate change mitigation strategy, particularly in attaining the national target of net zero emissions by 2070, declared at COP-26. The panelists discussed the role of taxes vs. emission trading systems (ETS) in balancing sustainable long-run growth with a transition to clean energy for India. How India takes on these challenges is indeed of global interest. Read more about this important meeting!
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EfD trained fishery officers and policymakers on bioeconomic models
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Participants in the training. Photo: EfD Nigeria.
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EfD Nigeria, in partnership with EfD Ghana, conducted a training session for fishery officers and policymakers on how to apply simple bioeconomic analysis to develop a fisheries management plan for Nigeria. The training took place on 13th-15th November 2023. Read more about this example of policy engagement and capacity building!
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Inclusive Green Economy in Practice (IGE)
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Dirty fuel dominates the energy mix in Kenya
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Biomass fuels dominate the energy mix in Kenya, causing health problems and CO2 emissions. Photo: Heamna Manzur, Pixabay.
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Kenya's energy mix encompasses biomass, oil, electricity, coal, and hydrogen, with coal and hydrogen being less prevalent. Most Kenyan citizens rely on biomass, especially firewood and charcoal, but there is evidence of a gradual decline. Oil constitutes the second most prominent energy source. The dependence on dirty fuels is the challenge addressed by the current cohort in the Inclusive Green Economy Program (IGE). Read more about this!
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EfD Chile researchers in a collaborative project on Patagonia rivers
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Photo: Florian Delée, Unsplash.
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Carlos Chávez and César Salazar, researchers from EfD Chile, are part of a team of Chilean scientists that has received funding from the Chilean Ministry of Environment to develop a tool that can assess climate change-related risks and guide environmental regulations for rivers in northern Patagonia.
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EfD Chile researchers talk about Chilean aquaculture on TV
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Aquaculture. Photo: Jimmy Ramirez, Pexels.
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Manuel Estay and Leonardo Salazar, research fellows from EfD Chile, participated in one of the latest episodes of the TV show Exploradores (Explorers). They addressed the Chilean aquaculture industry and its role worldwide. It has undergone a remarkable transformation in the past decade, driven by increased demand for seafood, technological advancements, and a focus on sustainability. It's also one of the prioritized research areas of EfD Chile. Read more about this and see the TV episode!
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The gendered effects of climate change: Evidence from droughts in rural India
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Woman in rural India. Photo: Pixabay.
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Climate change is increasing rainfall uncertainty, which has gendered impacts on rural labor markets. After droughts, women are less likely to access non-farm employment through migration than men, exacerbating existing occupational gender gaps. Read this interesting paper by EfD researchers Farzana Afridi, Kanika Mahajan, and Nikita Sangwan, published in VoxDev, Energy & Environment!
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The impact of rainfall shock on child labor - The role of the productive safety nets program and credit markets in Ethiopia
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This EfD Discussion paper by EfD researcher Dereje Yohannes and co-author Annika Lindskog examines the impact of positive and negative rainfall shocks on child labor in agricultural households in Ethiopia. They are the first to investigate how the presence of a public works program affects the child labor response to rainfall shocks. Read this paper!
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Adoption and impact of hybrid rice in India: evidence from a large-scale field survey
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Rice paddies in India. Photo: Vasanth Kumar, Pexels.
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This paper by EfD researcher Digvijay Singh Negi and co-authors, which was published in the Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies aims to understand the causes of the low adoption of hybrid rice technology. It also assesses the impact of hybrids and modern varieties on crop yield, compared to the old or traditional varieties. Read the paper to find out what they learned!
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Students’ non-cognitive skills in times of crisis: COVID-19 in Mexico
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COVID-19. Picture: Pixabay.
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The COVID-19 pandemic caused serious disruptions in the school systems throughout the world. EfD researcher Alejandro López-Feldman with co-authors Tonatiuh Cruz Herrera and Manuel Lara González, have looked at the effect it had in the non-cognitive skills of students in Mexico. Their results show that growth mindset declined, while social awareness and self-management improved during the pandemic. The negative effects on the growth mindset are certainly a reason for concern, while improving the other measures can be seen as a silver lining amidst the chaos created by the pandemic. Check out this interesting paper, published in Social Sciences and Humanities.
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The optimal combination of pastoral activities and wildlife conservation in the Serengeti ecosystem
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Elephants in Serengeti. Photo: Michelle Raponi, Pixabay.
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There is competition for land between Maasai pastoralists and the park agency in the Serengeti ecosystem. The park agency wants to use the land for wildlife conservation while the pastoralist community wants to use it for livestock grazing. This paper by EfD Researchers Gerald Kibira, Edwin Muchapondwa, and Herbert Ntuli, published in Natural Resource Modeling, develops a bioeconomic model to analyze the optimal combination of pastoral activities and wildlife conservation in the Serengeti ecosystem. Read this interesting paper!
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Postdoc in policy instrument evaluation at MCC in Berlin
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EfD's partner MCC is looking for a postdoc. If you feel that policy should be informed by the best available scientific evidence - then you may want to apply for this position in MCC’s Applied Sustainability Science (APSIS) group! The job will contribute to the second phase of the ARIADNE project - Germany's largest interdisciplinary research program to provide rigorous evidence for informing the German energy transition.
Application deadline: December 31, 2023.
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PhD studentship on the social and environmental outcomes of reforestation processes
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The Sustainable Forest Transitions (SFT) Project is recruiting one full-time Ph.D. student at the Global Development Institute (University of Manchester) from September 2024.
Deadline for applications: February 12, 2024.
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Ph.D. studentship in Forest Economics at SLU, Umeå, Sweden
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The Department of Forest Economics at SLU is searching a Doctoral student who will work on the project “Role of conservation interventions in preventing the degradation of Argentina’s Atlantic forests”.
Deadline for applications: February 16, 2024.
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Join the Lancet Countdown Academic Leadership Team!
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The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change is seeking to appoint five new Working Group Chairs and five new Working Group Co-Chairs, to steer its academic activities. These posts provide the opportunity for established academic leaders to elevate diverse local perspectives and steer the direction of the Lancet Countdown’s research.
Deadline for applications: January 8, 2024.
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Ph.D. studentship in forest economics: Climate off-farm rippled impacts on wellbeing and behavioral resilience
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The Department of Forest Economics at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Umeå is searching for a Ph.D. student who will work on the project “Climate off-farm rippled impacts on wellbeing and behavioral resilience” funded by the Swedish Research Council.
Deadline for application: February 29, 2024.
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EfD Seminar series - January and February
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The open EfD Seminar Series will continue in the new year. Here are the first two:
January 17th (14:00 CET)
Jan Steckel: ”Who is affected by carbon pricing and why? Evidence from 87 countries".
February 14th (14:00 CET)
Francisco Alpízar: “Disentangling the chicken or egg problem of household waste sorting and segregated waste collection: A randomized controlled trial in India”.
Mark your calendar and look out on the EfD website for more information!
Both seminars have this Zoom link: https://gu-se.zoom.us/j/65835642029
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The Curtin Institute for Energy Transition: Climate change and future energy demands
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This keynote speech is presented by the Curtin Institute for Energy Transition in collaboration with their international partner universities and forms part of the launch of a new online training program.
Partners include, among others, EfD Nigeria and EfD Ghana.
Date: February 13. 2024.
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Swedish Community for Sustainable Finance Conference 2024
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The global financial landscape is undergoing rapid transformation, promoting inclusion and diversity is imperative to ensure the sustainability and resilience of the financial sector.
Dates: April 25-26, 2024.
Place: University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Deadline submission of papers: February 9, 2024.
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The 29th Annual Conference of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE) will take place from 1 to 4 July 2024. They invite submissions of empirical and theoretical papers on environmental and resource economics to be presented onsite.
Deadline submissions: January 31, 2024.
Date of conference: July 1-4, 2024.
Place: Leuven, Belgium.
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State of Energy Research Conference (SoERC) - How can we accelerate the energy transition?
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This year, the State of Energy Research Conference will be held at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia. The Curtin Institute for Energy Transition is hosting this conference and is looking forward to welcoming attendees in 2024.
Date: February 14-16, 2024.
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