The Rising Powers, Clean Development and the Low Carbon Transition in Sub-Saharan Africa

新兴大国对撒哈拉以南非洲清洁能源系统的参与往往被资源和土地掠夺的流行形象所掩盖。为了寻求与一些非洲国家、企业和社区更密切地接触，以追求不同的经济和政治目标，正在崛起的大国越来越多地将可再生能源项目纳入其在非洲的援助和贷款组合。这一活动的深度、驱动因素和结果在发展以及对国际能源和气候治理的影响方面都是复杂和有争议的。这一跨学科研究项目旨在研究中国和巴西如何、为什么以及在多大程度上促进南部非洲向低碳能源系统的过渡，并评估由此对该地区能源服务的可负担性、可获得性和可持续性的影响。该项目将开发新的分析框架，以便系统地比较中国和巴西在促进非洲向低碳能源系统过渡方面所发挥的作用，特别是将分析这两个国家如何为生产用途(如烹饪、照明和交通)提供能源服务。此外，该项目还寻求评估在地方、国家、区域和全球范围内对更广泛的能源和气候变化治理的影响。从经验上讲，该研究项目将通过考察所涉及的行为者、机构、伙伴关系和决策进程的范围，并确定这一合作所服务的主要利益和受益者，来寻求了解新兴大国与非洲能源系统的接触。这项研究还将结合半结构化访谈和社区参与式研究方法，探索中国和巴西在南部非洲创造和促成的转型的动态，这些转型在技术、社会和空间上是不平衡和不同的。在整个地区，它们各自支持不同的技术行业和能源服务。它们的影响也存在社会差异，因为中国和巴西的投资、创新和基础设施发展模式造福于特定的社会群体，并对贫困和生计产生不同的影响。此外，中国和巴西对低碳转型的影响似乎存在空间差异，不仅在撒哈拉以南非洲的不同国家之间，而且在这些国家的城市和农村空间之间也是如此。因此，该项目力求审查这些动态对能源获取和可负担性等关键问题以及与更广泛的发展战略有关的后果。因此，该项目将针对ESRC正在崛起的国家方案的三个目标(即‘可持续性和竞争力’、‘福祉和公平’和‘全球治理’)，详细了解正在崛起的国家在南部非洲可再生能源部门的投资、创新和基础设施发展的性质。报告还将详细分析正在崛起的大国和非洲之间的南南技术转让和技术合作如何发挥作用，包括对创新能力的影响、具体技术的适当性以及对区域内外的政府和私营部门特别有用的现行投资战略的影响的见解。该项目通过与英国政府部门、巴西和中国的学术研究伙伴以及南部非洲学术和非政府组织社区的合作伙伴的合作，寻求建设能力，促进知识交流和政策对话，并建立跨学科和跨国研究网络，关注新兴大国在促进撒哈拉以南非洲低碳转型中的作用。

The involvement of Rising Powers in clean energy systems in sub-Saharan Africa is often obscured by popular images of resource- and land-grabs. Seeking to engage more closely with a number of African states, businesses and communities in pursuit of diverse economic and political goals, the Rising Powers have increasingly come to incorporate renewable energy projects into their aid and loan portfolios in Africa. The depth, drivers, and outcomes of this activity are complex and contested in terms of both development and the implications for international energy and climate governance. This interdisciplinary research project seeks to examine how, why and to what extent China and Brazil are enabling the transition to low carbon energy systems in Southern Africa and to assess the consequent implications for the affordability, accessibility and sustainability of energy services in the region. The project will develop new frameworks for analysis in order to systematically compare the roles that China and Brazil are playing in facilitating the transition to low carbon energy systems in Africa and in particular will analyse how they are shaping the provision of energy services for productive uses (e.g. for cooking, lighting and mobility). Further, the project also seeks to assess the implications for the wider governance of energy and climate change at the local, national, regional and global scales. Empirically, the research project will seek to understand the Rising Powers engagement with African energy systems by looking at the range of actors, institutions, partnerships and policy-making processes involved and by identifying the key interests and beneficiaries being served by this co-operation. Using a combination of semi-structured interviews and community-based participatory research methods the research will also explore the dynamics of the transitions being created and enabled by China and Brazil in Southern Africa, which are uneven and differentiated technically, socially and spatially. Across the region they have each championed different technology sectors and energy services. Their impacts are also socially differentiated in that patterns of Chinese and Brazilian investment, innovation and infrastructure development benefit particular groups of society and have differential impacts on poverty and livelihoods. Further, the impacts China and Brazil are having on low carbon transitions appear to be spatially differentiated, not just between different countries in sub-Saharan Africa but also between urban and rural spaces within these countries. Thus the project seeks to examine the consequences of these dynamics for key issues of energy access and affordability, and in relation to wider development strategies. Addressing three of the ESRC Rising Powers programme objectives (namely 'sustainability and competitiveness', 'well-being and equity' and 'global governance') the project will thus produce detailed knowledge on the nature of Rising Power's investment, innovation and infrastructure development in the renewable energy sector in Southern Africa. It will also provide a detailed analysis of how South-South technology transfer and technology cooperation between the Rising Powers and Africa can work, including insights about the implications for innovation capacity, the appropriateness of specific technologies and the impact of current investment strategies which will be of particular use for government and the private sector, within and outside the region. Involving collaborations with UK government departments, with academic research partners in Brazil and China and with partners from the academic and NGO community in Southern Africa the project seeks to build capacity, to foster knowledge exchange and policy dialogue and to build cross-disciplinary and transnational research networks concerned with the role of the Rising Powers in facilitating low carbon transitions in sub-Saharan Africa.