TPP Director Neil McCulloch worked with the international climate change think tank E3G and the Indonesian think tank the Institute for Essential Services Reform to explore the political economy of the electric vehicle (EV) sector in Indonesia. The report looks at the huge growth of the EV value chain in Indonesia, from nickel mining, through processing, to battery and EV manufacturing. It highlights the key constraints to the further development of the sector including: reputational damage due to the environmental harm of mining and processing; challenges in accessing major Western markets; fiscal constraints and competing priorities under the new government; and the active promotion of a different, multi-fuel model by existing Internal Combustion Engine manufacturers, and suggests ways in which external partners could work with Indonesia to support the resolution of these issues.

Written by Sam Bickersteth with Neil McCulloch and Meron Tesfamichael, this policy brief draws out some of the common constraints hindering the energy transition in these, and many other, countries in the Global South.  It also shows how PEA can help to identify politically feasible pathways of change in each country demonstrating the importance of PEA as an essential tool to understand energy transition.

This policy brief from TPP Director Dr Neil McCulloch is based on his book “Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies – the politics of saving the planet”, published by Practical Action Publishing. 

It summarises the problem with fossil fuel subsidies, how they inflict harm and what steps are being taken to reduce them.  It also shows why subsidies persist and why existing efforts have been so ineffective. Drawing lessons from countries which have tried to remove fossil fuel subsidies, it explains that the fundamental challenge to reform is not technical, but political. 

TPP Director, Neil McCulloch, has just launched a book on “Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies – the politics of saving the planet”, published by Practical Action Publishing.  The book explains what fossil fuel subsidies are, how they inflict harm and what steps are being taken to reduce them.  It also shows why subsidies persist and why existing efforts have been so ineffective. Drawing lessons from countries which have tried to remove fossil fuel subsidies, it explains that the fundamental challenge to reform is not technical, but political.  The book lays out a new agenda for action on fossil fuel subsidies, showing how a better understanding of the underlying political incentives can lead to more effective approaches to tackling this major global problem.

TPP Director, Neil McCulloch supported work led by Marc Ayoub of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut to produce a documentary on the challenges facing solar power development in Lebanon, drawing lessons from Jordan and Yemen. The work was funded by the Natural Resource Governance Institute. The documentary, in Arabic with English sub-titles, was launched on 6 September 2022 and broadcast on Lebanese television.  It can be viewed here. An accompanying Policy Brief was also produced which can be downloaded here.

In Lebanon, the current crisis has exposed the fragility of Electricité de Zahlé (EDZ’s) model, which relies on both discounted power provided by Electricité de Lebanon (EDL) and subsidized diesel fuel imports to run EDZ’s own power plant, which are both now in short supply. In this policy brief, the team has estimated the savings from a medium-sized Solar PV plant of 63 MW in Zahle area, covering 20% of the demand currently supplied by diesel-based power generation. They also tackled the challenges facing the implementation of utility-scale renewables in Lebanon and what the Government should do to enable such investments in renewables and proceed forward.

Global efforts to improve energy access and quality and to tackle climate change need a different approach to addressing poor energy governance in developing countries. Energy projects should be designed to “think and work politically.”

This Technical Brief shows how poor energy governance damages energy access and efforts to improve the quality and reliability of power. It explains the political reasons why energy governance is so bad in many countries and contrasts this with the current system of procuring technical assistance, which largely ignores the energy governance challenge.

On 4 February 2021, the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut (AUB), in collaboration with The Policy Practice (TPP) and the SOAS Anti-Corruption Evidence (ACE) consortium, hosted a webinar entitled ‘Models for tackling Lebanon’s electricity crisis’. This briefing paper summarises the views of the key speakers and discussants. It draws together the key threads of the discussion – identifying the commonalities and the points of disagreement – and provides some tentative suggestions about the way forward for the sector.

The SOAS-University of London Anti-Corruption Evidence Research Programme, together with The Policy Practice, has published a new report entitled: From dysfunctional to functional corruption: the politics of reform in Lebanon’s electricity sector. The study explores how it has been possible to establish Electricité de Zahlé’s functional, but problematic, electricity service provision within the complex sectarian political context of Lebanon.