One of the great questions for scholars of international relations and economics concerns the relationship between the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the natural environment. Does membership in the multilateral trade regime constrain environmental regulation and increase the environmental...

Given the rapid growth of resource consumption and pollution in the developing world, the importance of environmental governance in the global South has increased in recent years. In this article, we examine the global spread of environmental ministries. We argue that developing countries have...

Widespread adoption of clean cooking fuels is a necessary step toward reducing household air pollution and improving population health. Here we use large-scale surveys (10,000 households) from two Indian states, Kerala and Rajasthan, to examine how education and attitudes toward cooking...

Global petroleum subsidies peaked at USD 520 billion in the summer of 2008 and reached USD 212 billion in 2011, carrying high fiscal and environmental costs. Why do some countries spend so much money to subsidize petroleum consumption? Previous studies suggest that oil rich autocracies lacking...

Climate change mitigation requires sustainable energy transitions, but the political dynamics of these transitions are poorly understood. This article presents a general dynamic model of energy policy with long time horizons, endogenous electoral competition, and techno-political path...

Although most studies of energy poverty focus on whether or not households have access to modern fuels, expenditure is also an important issue, as households in developing countries spend a significant proportion of their total expenditures on energy. Using nationally representative household...

Can sales of solar products and services be a commercially viable business in poor rural communities? Although enthusiasm for off-grid electrification among researchers and practitioners is widespread, the determinants of commercial success in this domain remain poorly understood. This article...

Where electricity access is limited, solar lanterns are a viable and relatively inexpensive source of basic lighting for households. However, the creation of commercially viable business models for solar lanterns is difficult because the customers are poor and make decisions under tight...

Stand-alone photovoltaic systems provide a potentially sustainable option for rural electrification, but the design and management of these systems is a challenge. Here we examine the ability of dynamic (real-time) pricing in off-grid systems to improve the durability of the batteries used to...

As the cost of distributed power generation continues to decrease, technologies such as solar home systems and micro-grids become increasingly attractive in the quest for energy access. Here we show, however, that national rural electrification planning mostly continues to ignore distributed...