Biosafety certificates permitting Chinese researchers to grow genetically modified rice and corn expired last week, with little indication that the Ministry of Agriculture will renew them. The certificates, issued in…
GM in China: ‘Paranoia’ and public opinion
Building low carbon, high growth futures in Africa
An article in New Scientist magazine pubished today sets out one of the most hotly-contestated questions about increasing energy access in the global south: can low carbon techology deliver meaningful opportunities for economic growth? Author…
Community-based Micro Grids: Experiences in Rural Kenya
By Lorenz Gollwitzer I am standing in Olosho-Oibor, a small village three-hours from Nairobi, at the bottom of the Ngong Hills (famous as the place where Denys Finch Hatton crashed his…
Missionary discourses: can the green economy bring climate justice to the South?
by Joanes Atela, researcher, political ecology of carbon in Africa project The green economy has become one of the most powerful political and social agendas in the era of climate…
Ghana,’Brazil of Africa’: Keeping lights on for the World Cup
By Sandra Pointel in Accra Over recent years, concerns to “keep the lights on” have featured high on energy policy agendas and in media headlines, especially in the developed world. Competing…
‘Negotiating Environmental Change’ now available as an e-book
The 2003 book Negotiating Environmental Change: New Perspectives on Social Science, edited by STEPS director Ian Scoones, Melissa Leach (former director) and Frans Berkhout (Interim Director of Future Earth), has…
Political Ecologies of Carbon project researchers to speak at Green Economy in the South conference in July
Martin Kijazi and others from the STEPS Centre’s Political Ecologies of Carbon in Africa project will be speaking at the international conference “Green Economy in the South – Negotiating Environmental…
Against authoritarianism: Why we shouldn’t ‘put democracy on hold’ to achieve sustainability
Does the human response to global environmental challenges need to be channelled through authoritarian, controlled ‘transitions’? Threatened by climate change, should we ‘put democracy on hold for a while’? Or…
Latin American STEPS Centre Hub starts with debate series on sustainability
by Valeria Arza, Mariano Fressoli, Anabel Marin and Patrick van Zwanenberg, STEPS Centre Latin American hub A new series of Debates on Sustainability and Development in Latin America has kicked…
Learning from Great Transformations Past and Present
Reflecting on Karl Polanyi at the Resilience 2014 Conference By John Thompson, STEPS Centre Food and Agriculture Convenor In June 2013, I served on the Scientific Steering Committee of the…