Delina Authors Book Chapter on Politics of Sustainable Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

Laurence Delina, a post-doctoral associate at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, recently authored a chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Energy Politics titled “The Politics of Energy and Sustainable Development in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

In his chapter, Delina explores the politics surrounding the 7th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG7), which calls for access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy for all by 2030. He argues that the pursuit of SDG7 does not take place in a vacuum, but rather “is a process rife with contentious and messy exercises, in which technical materiality interacts with power, discourse, and behavioral, social, and institutional forces.” Delina puts forth a research agenda centered around the politics of energy systems and sustainable development, focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, the world’s most energy poor region.

The handbook, which is edited by Kathleen J. Hancock (Colorado School of Mines) and Juliann Allison (University of California, Riverside), is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. 

As a post-doctoral associate at the Pardee Center, Delina leads an interdisciplinary research project exploring the plausible pathways for achieving energy security in developing countries.