Blanche is an energy and sustainable development professional with close to twenty years of experience in both the public and private sectors, having guided energy sector policies and strategies, developed projects and led the implementation of technical assistance projects in emerging economies. Her working experiences include the private sector, the national government of South Africa, multilateral organisations, research councils and academia. Her particular research interests are in energy transitions, science, technology, and transformative innovation. Both are intertwined in academia and real-world practitioners’ experiences. For this, she has in-country experience in Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and South Africa.
Prior to UNEP-CCC, she was the Energy and Low Carbon Coordinator for UNIDO, at the Southern Africa Regional Office (SARO), leading projects on industrial energy efficiency, low carbon transport, eco-industrial parks, and climate change adaptation in the agri-industries. This role required collaboration and partnerships across multi-stakeholders that include government (national and local), private sector, DFIs, and research institutes.
Blanche holds a PhD from the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex, with a case study on South Africa’s energy transitions on renewable energy, and gas in the power sector, and two Masters Degrees in Climate Change and Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), U.K. as a Mandela-Sussex Scholar, and Bioprocess Engineering at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
