Green Power for Africa: Overcoming the Main Constraints

Inadequate power supply in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) means that only 37 per cent of sub-Saharan Africans have access to electricity. Those with access are prone to experience problems with regular power outages. In many sub- SSA countries, electricity access rates are decreasing because electrification efforts are slower than population growth. In recent years, however, some SSA countries have demonstrated that with political will and opportunities for appropriate finance, access to electricity can be accelerated. Alongside increased awareness in the international development community of the importance of energy for human development, the requirement for energy to be ‘green’ means that calls for the provision of clean, renewable energy sources cannot be ignored. The authors of this IDS Bulletin provide insights from power systems engineering, macroeconomics, microeconomics, and political economy on how to overcome constraints to green electricity in Africa. One of the biggest contributions of this issue is that is allows a dialogue between academics and practitioners that would not normally be published in the same journal. What also emerges as an underlying thread is the essential role of donors to achieve sustainable energy for all in Africa. The contributions to the IDS Bulletin underline the enormity of the clean electrification challenge in Africa, and demonstrate the benefits of a multidisciplinary approach where technical, economic, and political perspectives are involved in the design of interventions

Undermining the urban present: Struggles over toxicity and environmental knowledge in Zambian mining cities

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation.October 2019. Major: Geography. Advisor: Vinay Gidwani. 1 computer file (PDF); xvi, 409 pages.The crux of this dissertation is twofold: first, I investigate Mopani Copper Mine in Mufulira and the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mine’s (ZCCM) Kabwe lead mine to analyze how state and corporate actors evade responsibility for industrial contamination and its associated environmental and human destruction. Second, I think through how to understand, legitimize, and value in one kind of ‘minor’ knowledge, which I have termed embodied knowledge. The first section of the dissertation analyzes how Mopani, ZCCM, and the Zambian government produce an abstract regulatory apparatus, a particular way of framing, measuring, and legitimizing knowledge about the environment that silences its critics. This is done by manufacturing ignorance, telling simple fictions, and promoting enumerations that mean very little about what actually matters. This in turn compels residents of adjacent mining Townships to wait amidst life-threatening toxicity, despite their valiant efforts. The second section of the dissertation re-thinks what it means to wait in this instance, arguing that residents are not passive but are instead constantly moving and furious. The final section builds the concept of embodied knowledge, which I define as a way of knowing and claiming expertise through a sustained connection between bodies and place. Embodied knowledge arises from sensing, emplacement, and recounting. Finally, I argue that this knowledge—acquired while enduring the quasi-event of toxicity—has the potential to upend the apparatus by questioning its legitimacy

Proceedings of the construction business and project management conference

Conceptualising challenges and opportunities in the construction industry

African Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation

This open access book discusses current thinking and presents the main issues and challenges associated with climate change in Africa. It introduces evidences from studies and projects which show how climate change adaptation is being - and may continue to be successfully implemented in African countries. Thanks to its scope and wide range of themes surrounding climate change, the ambition is that this book will be a lead publication on the topic, which may be regularly updated and hence capture further works. Climate change is a major global challenge. However, some geographical regions are more severly affected than others. One of these regions is the African continent. Due to a combination of unfavourable socio-economic and meteorological conditions, African countries are particularly vulnerable to climate change and its impacts. The recently released IPCC special report "Global Warming of 1.5º C" outlines the fact that keeping global warming by the level of 1.5º C is possible, but also suggested that an increase by 2º C could lead to crises with crops (agriculture fed by rain could drop by 50% in some African countries by 2020) and livestock production, could damage water supplies and pose an additonal threat to coastal areas. The 5th Assessment Report produced by IPCC predicts that wheat may disappear from Africa by 2080, and that maize— a staple—will fall significantly in southern Africa. Also, arid and semi-arid lands are likely to increase by up to 8%, with severe ramifications for livelihoods, poverty eradication and meeting the SDGs. Pursuing appropriate adaptation strategies is thus vital, in order to address the current and future challenges posed by a changing climate. It is against this background that the "African Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation" is being published. It contains papers prepared by scholars, representatives from social movements, practitioners and members of governmental agencies, undertaking research and/or executing climate change projects in Africa, and working with communities across the African continent. Encompassing over 100 contribtions from across Africa, it is the most comprehensive publication on climate change adaptation in Africa ever produced