Delina Authors New Paper on Politics of Coal in the Philippines

Laurence Delina, a Visiting Research Fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, recently authored a paper on the politics and social movements surrounding coal-based development in the Philippines for the journal World Development.

The paper focuses specifically on a proposed coal mine on Indigenous land in the Province of South Cotabato in the Philippines. The mine was met with local opposition, contributing to the broader understanding of social mobilization against coal extraction. Using this case study, Delina illustrates the dynamics of localized social movements in opposition to extractivist development models.

Delina is an assistant professor at the Division of Environment and Sustainability at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. While a post-doctoral associate at the Pardee Center from 2015-2019, Delina led a research project called The Future of Energy Systems in Developing Countries, which sought to understand the options and trade-offs for achieving a secure and sustainable energy future in a select number of developing countries.