The Paris Agreement, under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, lays out the international community’s blueprint for curbing global warming. It is a blueprint articulated around the individual contributions that each party to the Convention is prepared to make, in light of its capabilities and the so-called principle of common-but-differentiated responsibilities. This thesis explores how national governments are […]

Access to clean, reliable and affordable energy services is fundamental to economic and social well-being. Yet nearly 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity. International commitments aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and ensuring universal access to energy services, principally the Paris Agreement of the UN Climate Change Convention and the UN SE4ALL Sustainable Development Goal 7, […]

The overwhelming evidence and scientific consensus on the impacts of human-induced climate change have prompted enhanced mitigation responses over time, led by developed countries representing the biggest emitters historically. More recently, rapid economic growth in developing countries has led to soaring emissions of greenhouse gases. As a result, measures to promote a shift to low-carbon and sustainable futures in all […]

In Sub-Saharan Africa more than 630 million people live without access to electricity. Access to modern energy services like phone-charging, electric lighting, cooling, heating, etc. is an important enabler of social and economic development and human well-being. Renewable energy-based electrification solutions that deliver power through a decentralised mini-grid to village communities have gained in prominence as a supplementary path to […]

Securing a low-carbon future will require a multitude of ‘low-carbon transformations’. The issues are how such transformations are imagined and framed, along which pathways and who steers them, including the very basic question of what decisions are made to transform the present challenges to climate change governance. Understanding of the politics of these governance challenges is important in explaining which […]

Ecosystems are central to the livelihoods of many people and at the same time highly vulnerable to climate change. This research, which focuses on ecosystems and land use, investigates how households dependent on ecosystems can benefit from climate change adaptation and mitigation. Adaptation and mitigation are two different approaches to minimising the impact and extent of climate change. The possible […]

In recent years, urban flooding has become an increasingly severe and frequent problem for the poor in many West African urban centres. In diverse metropoles of the region, including Lagos, Cotonou, Accra, Abidjan and Dakar, low-income populations who typically live undesirable flood-prone areas see their already considerable vulnerability increased for every flooding event. In the long term, climate change is […]

The objective of this thesis is to advance scientific knowledge on South-South Development Cooperation and on the understanding of southern countries’ ambitions in contributing to international development, taking Brazil as a case. The main research question addresses the reasons behind Brazil’s participation in development cooperation and how these international political ambitions influence the project model of its South-South Development Cooperation, […]

The objective of this thesis is to contribute to advance further the emerging research agenda on the transfer and diffusion of low-carbon technologies in developing countries by adopting a study of the development of biomass power plant technologies in Malaysia. The main research question addresses the main factors influencing the transfer and diffusion of biomass power plant technologies in Malaysia. […]