Research on Carbon Markets and Innovation for the Poor
Carbon markets as catalysts for innovation in technologies for the poor: Many technologies that reduce carbon emissions also have additional co-benefits such as health improvement and poverty alleviation. Carbon markets may generate the necessary financing and private sector involvement needed to move these technologies, quickly and at scale, into the hands of people who need them. I will be studying the case of the NGO World Vision and their attempts to use the Clean Development Mechanism to fund distribution of improved cookstoves in Ethiopia.Technology and sustainability in alternative energy: New technologies in alternative energy offer many possibilities for sustainability, but merely inputting new technologies without societal and political changes may lead to limited benefits and unintended consequences. I am interested in examining this issue in the US and perhaps abroad.
Current Projects - Darfur Stoves and Range Roundtable
Carbon Markets for Darfur Cookstoves: The Berkeley-Darfur Cookstove uses 70% less fuelwood, resulting in lower rates of deforestation, significant savings of time and money for Darfur refugees, less exposure to violence for Darfurian women, and reduced carbon emissions of around 2 tons CO2e per stove each year. I am researching various carbon market mechanisms to find sustainable carbon emission reduction funding for 300,000 Darfur cookstoves. See
www.darfurstoves.org for more information.Berkeley Institute for the Environment Roundtable on Environmental Services from Rangelands. We seek to involve a wide array of interested and knowledgeable individuals to come together in a number of roundtables and discuss the impacts of global warming on rangelands as well as possible roles for rangelands in mitigating climate change while remaining in productive use. More information can be found at
http://nature.berkeley.edu/UCBrangelands/Welcome.html.