Berkeley-Haas Faculty to Lead Economic Sustainability Research Initiative
The Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley’s Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) and The Haas Energy Institute are leading a new research program that will unite economists, political scientists, and engineers toward a common goal — providing access to the nearly 2 billion people in the world without access to reliable electricity.
Energy for Economic Growth (EEG) will be focused on the areas of southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Two Berkeley-Haas professors will lead the program, which will also include a research group from Oxford Policy Management, a UK international development consultancy. Professor Catherine Wolfram is the Energy Institute’s faculty director; she also teaches Business Administration. The other program leader, Professor Paul J. Gertler, directs the school’s center for International Business and Policy in addition to serving as the Li Ka Shing Foundation Chair in Health Management.
The intent of the EEG will be to form strategies for the underserved countries to minimize their economic investments in electricity access while maximizing the benefits. The effort will be guided by the goal to form environmentally sustainable systems. Wolfram recently noted, “We all know that energy is quite literally an engine for economic development. Yet we are still very much in the dark about how and to what extent energy drives growth, especially in low-income countries.”
The EEG will produce reports in the categories of sustainable urban growth, governance, electricity supply, extraction methods, renewable resources, and “cleantech” design models. Professor Gertler remarked,
“[There exists] a risk of misallocating scarce public resources, especially in low and middle income countries where energy demand is increasing. Without informed decision-making, large numbers of people are left to languish in poverty.”
The EEG will be funded by a $19 million grant from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development.
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Maggie Boccella
Maggie Boccella, a lifelong resident of Philadelphia, is a freelance writer, artist and photographer. She has consulted on various film and multimedia projects, and she also serves as a juror for the city's annual LGBTQIA Film Festival.
