Environment, Energy, and Climate Change
Climate change disproportionately affects people living in poverty and threatens to reverse decades of progress in global poverty alleviation. However, there is a critical lack of research on the real-world impacts of climate solutions. Leaders around the world need more evidence on the effectiveness of technological and policy innovations to implement solutions that address climate change and poverty.
In addition to supporting policymakers in applying evidence from randomized evaluations to their work, sector chairs and staff write policy insights that synthesize general lessons emerging from the research, condense results from evaluations in policy publications and evaluation summaries, and fund new research and scale-ups at the nexus of climate change and poverty alleviation through the King Climate Action Initiative.
Blog
Energy poverty in Europe: Using evidence to address an urgent challenge
The impacts of Covid-19, coupled with the war in Ukraine, have made households in Europe more susceptible to energy poverty, particularly as people are bracing themselves for the cold winter months to come. Yet, income losses during the pandemic and rising energy prices in response to European...
Blog
Earth Day 2022: Evidence for climate-resilient food systems and nutrition
The effects of climate change will worsen over the next thirty years and will disproportionately impact the world’s poorest people in many ways. In recognition of Earth Day 2022, we're highlighting how food systems, food security, and nutrition are particularly vulnerable to climate impacts.
Blog
How evidence from randomized evaluations can inform climate finance at COP26
One of the goals of COP26 is to mobilize climate finance, but funding alone cannot guarantee effective climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. Because technological and policy innovations do not always achieve their desired effects in the field, climate financing should be informed by real...
In the news
Punjab inks pact to launch emissions trading
In partnership with J-PAL and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, the Punjab government is developing an emissions trading scheme to reduce pollution in the state.
In the news
If we can vaccinate the world, we can beat the climate crisis
J-PAL co-founders Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo write that rich countries' willingness to follow through on their promises to deliver Covid-19 vaccines to poorer countries and drastically reduce global vaccine inequity will test whether rich countries can be trusted to tackle global climate...
Policy insight
Encouraging residential energy efficiency
Programs that encouraged investments in residential energy efficiency had limited returns in several impact evaluations in real-world settings. Relatively small impacts on energy savings coupled with low take-up meant that encouraging these investments through information campaigns and subsidies was...
Case study
Strengthening third-party audits to reduce pollution
Evidence from a randomized evaluation informed the scale-up of a pollution audit policy in Gujarat, India.
In the news
Cash for Carbon: Paying People to Conserve Trees Works, Study Finds
In this article and video, J-PAL affiliate Seema Jayachandran discusses her randomized evaluation of a payments for ecosystems program in Uganda.
