ONGOING Research

Inclusive Net Zero

I lead research on the Inclusive Net Zero component of the Oxford Net Zero InitiativeI and are looking to answer the following questions: What do equity and inclusivity mean for net zero? How does inclusive net zero mean for the Global South? What about for marginalised social groups in the Global South? Can the net zero framing be inclusive to future generations? What strategies, tools and resources are required to make net zero plans and actions more inclusive?

• Net zero commitments by businesses in Africa: a stocktake. Oxford Net Zero Policy Brief (2022).

• Africa Needs Context-Relevant Evidence to Shape Its Clean Energy Future. Nature Energy, with Mulugetta, Y., Sokona, Y., Trotter, P., Fankhauser, S., Croxatto, L.S., Steffen, B., et al. (2022).

• The real story: Who pays to fix climate change? BBC World Service, 2021

Climate finance and climate justice and equity

COP26 Fellowship funded by ESRC (2020-2021)

This aspect of my work looks into the delivery of finance for adaptation by multilateral climate finance institutions, specifically looking at whether and how the Green Climate Fund delivers finance to the local level in the Global South.

• The green climate fund and its shortcomings in local delivery of adaptation finance. Climate Policy, 2022.

• Aligning climate finance for an equitable and sustainable net zero future. COP26 Universities Network Briefing Note, 2021

• Co-benefits of climate change mitigation and adaptation. COP26 Universities Network Briefing Note, 2021

• COP26: billions are being spent tackling climate change- where is it all going? Climate podcast Part 1. The Conversation, 2021

• COP26 as an opportunity to further democratise the Green Climate Fund. Lancet Planetary Health, 2021.

• Climate adaptation finance is ineffective and must be more transparent. The Conversation, 2021.

• The Green Climate Fund Is Not Doing Enough to Support Just Transitions in the Global South. Just Transitions Research Collaborative, 2021.

Just transitions

This aspect of my research looks into how transitions are taking place in the Global South. I am particularly interested in how sub-national regions in the Global South are transitioning to low carbon climate resilient development futures. I've been collaborating with the UNRISD on this since 2018.

Watch recording of webinar on Financing Just Transitions that was held in 2020.

Climate information for adaptation to climate change

Funded by the AIMS African Women in Climate Science (AWICCS) Fellowship between 2020 and 2021

For this piece of research, I will be exploring whether we can use high resolution downscaled long-term climate change projections to inform livelihood decision making at the local level in the semi-arid regions of Kenya. I will be partnering with colleagues from South Eastern Kenya University on this work.

COMPLETED research

Country ownership in adaptation to climate change

This was my PhD research, where I explored country ownership of adaptation and adaptation finance (which is a key principle for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement) generate equitable processes and outcomes within states in the Global South. The research was based on a case study of a Least Countries Development Fund (LDCF)-funded coastal adaptation project in Tanzania

• Country ownership of adaptation: Stakeholder influence or government control? This article shows that country ownership does not generate processes that enable stakeholders from countries in the Global South to influence adaptation decision making, but instead creates conditions that promote greater influence over adaptation decisions by governments of Global South countries (Published in Geoforum in 2020)

• Challenging the obsession with local level institutions in country ownership of climate change adaptation (2020). This article shows that country ownership does not guarantee that local priorities for adaptation will be met (Published in Land Use Policy in 2020).

• Do country-owned adaptation interventions reflect local level priorities? Application of a framings approach. This article shows that even when projects are guided by country ownership principles, how local problems and solutions for responding to climate change does not match how local actors, especially communities frame problems and solutions. Instead, government framings are likely to be more pronounced (Published in Climate and Development in 2020).

Complete PhD thesis can be viewed and downloaded here.

Resilience to floods in cities

I did this work in between 2015 and 2016 with the University of Nairobi, Maji na Ufanisi and the London School of Economics.

With the University of Nairobi and Maji na Ufanisi, we investigated responses to seasonal floods by households in informal settlements along rivers in Nairobi. The report from the research is here.

With the University of Nairobi and LSE, we looked into response strategies to the 2015/2016 El-Nino by Micro-, Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nairobi. Read: Business experience of floods and drought-related water and electricity supply disruption in three cities in sub-Saharan Africa during the 2015/2016 El Niño (Published in Global Sustainability in 2018)