PROJECTS

Integrating Climate Services and Products in Environmental Impact Assessment Regulatory Processes, Administration and System in Caribbean small island states

October 2023 – Ongoing

Project Description • This grant has been provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through the Climate Program Office’s Adaptation Sciences (AdSCi) Program.  This work will be a partnership with the University of West Indies, Climate Resilience Execution Agency for Dominica (CREAD) and Ministry of Environment, Dominica and Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology.  The project will investigate the current status of Caribbean climate services sector in connection with national regulatory processes and evaluate the utility of climate services and products in public and private sector.

Climate-Health-Environment Nexus Risk in the ‘Shared Economy’ Hotel Sector: Assessment and Risk Reduction Planning

June 2023 – Ongoing

Project Description • The uncertainties and risks at the climate-health-environment nexus has significant implications for the future of the Caribbean tourism sector and therefore the health and well-being of island peoples. The rapidly growing ‘sharing economy’ private vacation property rental segment (‘AirBnBs’) is almost totally unregulated and therefore presents significant potential nexus risks to all participants – operators, visitors, local communities, and government regulators. This study aims to design a nexus risk assessment approach for private vacation property operators and the local communities in which they are immersed. We will implement the assessments in close consultation with a highly vulnerable, representative Jamaican community, and identify and communicate the potential risk reduction solution sets to all stakeholders. Outputs of this study will lay the groundwork for a nexus risk reduction strategy for local government policy makers, a test of an indigenous technology prototype, and a nexus risk rating system for the operators in the Jamaican AirBnB market and potentially elsewhere.

Analyzing low-carbon and cost-effective strategies to meet growing energy demand in Indonesia

February 2020 – Ongoing

Project Description • Indonesia is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with an electricity system reliant on fossil fuels and renewable electricity contributing a small portion of their growing demand. In this study, we utilize an optimization approach to consider different policy-driven pathways for Indonesia’s long-term electricity planning by formulating different predictive scenarios based on current policy discussions and changes in the energy industry regarding possible coal moratorium, declining costs of technologies, carbon tax scheme and a scenario built on Indonesia’s Nationally Determined Contributions statements. Our findings suggest that in all non-business-as usual projections to 2050, renewable energy contributions to Indonesia’s electricity portfolio will grow, with solar outcompeting wind; that the country’s electricity future must shift largely to natural gas; and coal and oil to quickly decline. Geothermal resources will play a significant role in the Nationally Determined Contributions scenario and there are natural renewable potential limits that have to be considered. These findings will be useful to electricity sector policymakers and planners as Indonesia continues along its sustainable economic development pathway.

Exploring Governance Dynamics for Sustainable Energy Transitions in Overseas Island Jurisdictions: The Case of Martinique in the Caribbean

October 2021 – Ongoing

Partner Institutions • University of Delaware /Université de la Reunion

Project Description • Small island jurisdictions continue to be strained by dependence on imported fossil fuels to run their economies and meet the needs of their societies. Seeking cleaner energy options and further energy independence through transitions to renewable resources such as wind, solar and geothermal have potential in many islands but have yet to reach fruition. Drawing from our experience in assessment of technical renewable energy potentials and policy, regulatory and institutional analysis of energy security in islands, our interest is planning pathways for achieving transition in the particular contexts of overseas island departments and territories. For this the researchers study the French departments in the Caribbean and Indian ocean, the nature of their energy governance and their transition goals, while navigating regional energy policy with independent island neighbors and comparing to U.S and Netherlands island territories in the Caribbean region.

Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable, Post-Pandemic Recovery in U.S Island Territories

January 2022 – March 2022

Project Description • U.S island territories like small island states have been highlighted as among the most vulnerable to extreme weather events, often economically limited and less diversified, have fragile ecologies, are highly indebted and often energy insecure. The imperative is to leverage technology for economic strengthening and value added, clean economic activities that are magnified and impactful.  Through this grant from ORAU, the Island Policy Lab has organized a set of three webinars to showcase how island contexts provide unique opportunities for university-government-private sector partnerships to pilot and test prototypes and models where they can make a real difference; and the policies and strategies for progress.  These webinars discuss new and innovative tools, processes and technologies that can promote islands’ sustainability and update the community on the current and future state of policies and research strategies that are relevant to small island states generally, but most specifically focusing on U.S island territories globally.

Outputs • The project produced three webinars which can be accessed on the Webinar page.  

This project is funded by the University of Delaware Research Foundation, Inc. (UDRF) which is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization for the support of fundamental research in all fields of science at the University of Delaware.

Contributions:

— Energy planning

— OSeMOSYS Modelling

— Qualitative methods

— Resilliency 

Contributions:

— Regulatory Systems

— Environmental Policy

— STI Solutions

— Planning and Governance 

Contributions:

— Knowledge building

— Climate Policy

— Energy Policy

— Governance