True Value of a Negative Carbon Energy for Local and Global Communities

This project brings together experts in several disciplines: solar energy, economics, health, and law and ethics, whilst also ambitiously looks towards solving a real-life issue (lack of energy) through rating negative carbon energy technologies to enable the consumers to make informed decision in choosing one(s) that best suit them without burdening them with loans and recurring costs such as battery replacement . The project novelty lies in providing unbiased opportunities to consumers to choose their source of energy, thus converting currently deprived households into empowered entities. This work will be truly interdependent, and not just a sum of separate components. The outcome will advance each of these fields, by evaluating a basket of renewable energy technologies, applying a novel legal and ethical framework in combination with economic analysis, and investigating the direct effect of the use of new technology on health and standards of living. This work will lead to further research in the bottom-up approach to sustainable development; for example, emphasizing the role of clean energy unit in delivering Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) especially SDG 7 (clean energy) and its concomitant effects on SDG 3 (health), SDG 6 (water), SDG 8 (economic growth) and SDG 12 (food). The significance of this project is in its focus on world development and net negative carbon energy via demonstrating direct impact on livelihood of local communities. The merit of our approach is in its top-quality research and integration of fundamental and applied academic research and engineering design, which is the distinct feature of Brunel. Our ambition is to lead by example in delivering a state-of-art methodology to evaluate and understand the comparative and collective role of renewable energy technologies to improve health and wellbeing of impoverished communities in a holistic manner via direct interaction with end-users, local producers and local governments. In addition to the health and environmental benefits, opportunities to transfer technology knowledge and skills to local manufacturers will catalyse a sustainable economic revolution. Embedded in the project will be strong commitment and compliance with international laws such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) as well as the local/national regulatory effectiveness and procedural legitimacy with regards to ethical, legal, and social implications of new and emerging technologies. We intend to formulate a toolkit as a comprehensive and pilot guideline to make the most of the New Negative Carbon Energy by realistically quantifying full benefits for target communities. Whilst these would initially earmark the three locales of interest – Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, we foresee that this may subsequently be expanded to other countries in the region. The implementation will additionally employ the framework of adaptive governance incorporated from the management and governance of socio-ecological systems, using non-doctrinal legal approaches and non-top-down methods. The comprehensive evaluation of the benefits and costs of the new energy will be carried out using the advanced methods of economic modelling and data analysis.

People

	Name	Telephone	Email	Office
	Dr Pin Lean Lau Senior Lecturer in Bio Law T: +44 (0)1895 268186 E: pinlean.lau@brunel.ac.uk	+44 (0)1895 268186	pinlean.lau@brunel.ac.uk	Elliot Jaques 007
	Professor Harjit Singh Professor - Sustainable Energy Technologies (Principal investigator) T: +44 (0)1895 265468 E: harjit.singh@brunel.ac.uk	+44 (0)1895 265468	harjit.singh@brunel.ac.uk	Howell Building 131