The economic impacts of energy and climate technology in the global south
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- We are in a race against time to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change. Fortunately, the speed and scale of climate technology innovation and deployment is increasing in some wealthy countries. But, most of the Global South is being left behind, in terms of mitigation, adaptation and entrepreneurial opportunity. This lack of infrastructure and technology deployment is particularly true in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA), home to 1.2b people. This current situation is troublesome given that most people in the Global South, and especially SSA, contributed very little to climate change but are bearing the immediate brunt of its impacts. To help address the lack of progress, I designed my dissertation in two parts - to explore the past effects of energy development and prospective impacts of climate technology adoption. Specifically, I study how electricity development and increased access affects wealth and public health; and second, the potential impacts of electric vehicle deployment on reducing climate emissions and air pollution and increasing government revenue. Following the introduction of the dissertation, I start by briefly discussing the lack of research and investment in climate technology in the Global South, in which I illustrate why this lacking attention is so unfortunate, noting the historic social justice component\citep{Ratledge:2022b}. Then, in the first full chapter, we use satellite imagery and machine learning to impute wealth at the community level and measure the impact of Uganda's grid expansion on household wealth\citep{Ratledge:2022a}. This research is novel in terms of imputing data at scale in SSA, developing a first of its kind time series of electric grid evolution, and applying this data in causal analysis. I extend the exploration of electrification in my next chapter by tracking childhood mortality in SSA post night time light (NTL) luminosity. I find childhood mortality rates decrease and wealth increases post NTL visibility, providing additional insight into how and when communities can escape the well-documented `poverty trap' that plagues communities across the Global South. In the last chapter I simulate electric vehicle roll out in Kenya and find that Kenya could save hundreds of millions of dollars in emissions costs and simultaneously increase government revenue by a quarter billion dollars over the next ten years. Together, my research creates a clearer understanding of both the historic effects of electrification in SSA and quantifies the potential impacts of climate technology deployment, where the benefits are substantial and deserve greater attention and investment.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2023; ©2023 |
| Publication date | 2023; 2023 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Ratledge, Nathan Willis |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Burke, Marshall |
| Degree supervisor | Reichelstein, Stefan, 1957- |
| Thesis advisor | Burke, Marshall |
| Thesis advisor | Reichelstein, Stefan, 1957- |
| Thesis advisor | Caldeira, K. (Ken) |
| Thesis advisor | Field, Christopher B |
| Degree committee member | Caldeira, K. (Ken) |
| Degree committee member | Field, Christopher B |
| Associated with | Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Nathan Ratledge. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2023. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/sj027xw3723 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2023 by Nathan Willis Ratledge
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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