Delina Convenes Two Workshops on Future of Energy Systems in Developing Countries

Laurence Delina, a Visiting Research Fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, recently convened a pair of interdisciplinary workshops on the future of energy systems in developing countries.

The first workshop, which was held November 1-2 at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India, focused on China’s rapidly expanding investments in energy infrastructure, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and the Indo-Pacific region’s vast energy demand. The workshop, titled “Sinonization of Indo-Pacific’s Energy Futures? Investigating China’s Belt-and-Road Initiative Energy Investments in Asia and the Pacific,” brought together a group of early-career and senior researchers to present their in-progress papers. This collection of papers sought to expand understanding of one of the fastest-growing research areas in Asian studies: the scale, scope, and impacts of China’s BRI as funding is made available to close energy infrastructure gaps in recipient countries in the Indo-Pacific region. The participants focused on the multiple facets and implications of the BRI to the heterogeneous futures of Indo-Pacific’s energy systems, which comes at a critical juncture given Asia’s aging energy infrastructure, increasing demand for energy, the climate emergency, and the quest for sustainable development for all. The collection of papers is expected to appear as a special issue in an academic journal in 2021. The International Studies Association provided funding for the workshop.

The second workshop, which was held November 8-9 in Bali, Indonesia, explored climate system intervention technologies. The workshop comprised 22 participants from various disciplines and practice, including from energy and climate modeling, climate and energy policy and governance, and critical social science from and within the Southeast Asian region. Several new research directions were identified in the study of: engineering systems and technologies and their potentials and benefits for Southeast Asia, particularly highlighting carbon reduction techniques; the policy and governance aspects of solar radiation management and carbon dioxide removal as it relates to the region; modeling multi-country impacts; the politics and political economy of these techniques; and establishing a knowledge network. The World Academy of Sciences Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative provided funding for the workshop.

Delina recently began a new position as 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.