active · Climate

Connecting climate goals with local realities of Nepal: Analyzing changing energy poverty and access patterns in the era of climate change

The high magnitude earthquake in 2015 aggravated the situation of energy poverty and access in Nepal as around 30% of the infrastructure was damaged. The purpose of the project is to advance knowledge on the relationships between energy transition and energy access in the context of Nepal. Energy transition in Nepal runs along two parallel processes: a transition from low-access to high access to modern energy for meeting the demands of the population, and a transition from fossil-fuel based energy to renewable energy. However, little has been known about how these two processes relate to each other.By defining access as the ability to derive benefits from energy sources, we aim to identify the differentiated patterns of means, relations, and processes that enable/disable small businesses and households’ opportunities to have access, alleviate poverty and derive benefits from energy transition.Our core research questions are: How and to what extent is energy access achieved in the transition from fossil-fuel based energy to renewable energy? How is energy proverty and energy transition related? By providing qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the ramifications of energy access (SDG 7) for other areas of sustainable development, this study contributes to the need to harmonize global agreement of Sustainable Development Goals with local realities on the ground.