Is development possible without fossil fuels?

02/13/25 • 73 min

The COP 29 conference once again highlighted divergences between ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ countries with regards to states’ responsibility to limit their carbon emissions and transition away from fossil fuels. According to many poorer countries, restrictions on fossil fuel production and consumption would constrain economic and social development, a burden which they feel is unfair given that rich countries largely caused climate change. But are fossil fuels really necessary for development? Could the transition away from fossil fuels create opportunities for economic diversification, jobs, innovation, and improvements in public health and energy access? What can and should rich countries do to ensure that poorer countries can develop without reliance on fossil fuels?

Meet the speakers

Rose Mutiso is the Research Director for the Energy for Growth Hub. The Hub’s research and policy network focuses on issues such as improving how we define and measure energy poverty, pragmatic solutions for clean energy technology finance and deployment, and just energy transitions in energy-poor countries. Rose is also the Co-Founder and ex-CEO of the Mawazo Institute—a non-profit research institute based in Kenya which aims to support the next generation of female scholars and thought leaders in East Africa. She was previously a Senior Fellow in the Office of International Climate and Clean Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy, where she co-led DOE’s engagement on technology and policy dimensions of energy access in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Dr Amir Lebdioui is Associate Professor in the Political Economy of Development and the Director of the Technology and Industrialisation for Development (TIDE) Centre at the University of Oxford’s Department for International Development. His research has focused on the economic diversification of resource-dependent nations, green industrial policy and low-carbon innovation. He is the author of Survival of the Greenest: Economic Transformation in a Climate-conscious World, published by Cambridge University Press in 2024.

Alache Fisho is Policy Lead, Transition Pathways at the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (BOGA) Secretariat. She has over 20 years’ experience in energy and extractives, advising governments across Africa, the Pacific, and the Caribbean and as in-house counsel in a large integrated state-owned enterprise. Alache leads BOGA’s engagement with producer countries, particularly in EMDEs geared towards supporting the design and implementation of an evidenced-backed vision of a ‘beyond oil and gas’ economy. She also supports dialogue and peer learning through BOGA’s thematic working groups and wider community of practice.

Chair: Julia Tomei is the Deputy Director of the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources and an Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Environment, Energy & Resources.

Co-organised with UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources

Meet the speakers

Chair: Julia Tomei is the Deputy Director of the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources and an Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Environment, Energy & Resources.

Co-organised with UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources

Previous Episode

Lobbying: participatory democracy or crony capitalism?

This seminar demystifies the secret world of consultancy and lobbying. It is an industry which has grown hugely in recent decades, and become an inevitable part of modern policy making. But lobbyists and lobbying are frequently misunderstood. To explain what lobbyists do we have four very senior practitioners, with a wide range of experience between them. Two are consultants, and two in-house lobbyists; two work primarily in the UK, and two engage in consultancy and lobbying worldwide.

They will explain the different roles of lobbyists, from communications and reputation management to strategy and policy work. They will also discuss the growing demands for lobbying in the UK to be more tightly regulated: on one estimate, the Lobbying Act 2014 captures only 4 per cent of lobbying activity. Lobbying necessarily informs policy; but by operating largely behind the scenes, does it also undermine democracy?

Meet the speakers

Charles Lewington OBE is the Chairman of Hanover Communications, which he founded in 1998 after a high-profile career in Downing Street and political journalism. It has grown to more than 200 consultants. He is also President elect of the Public Relations Consultancy Association, representing more than 1,000 agencies in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.

Yasmin Diamond CB, Executive Vice President of Global Corporate Affairs at IHG Hotels & Resorts. Yasmin is responsible for all external and internal communications; global government affairs work; and leading IHG’s corporate responsibility strategy. Before joining IHG in 2012, Yasmin was Director of Communications in the Home Office, and before that at DEFRA.

Tamasin Cave is the Head of Strategic Communications at Uplift UK. Prior to her current position, she worked with Spinwatch, a non-profit that investigates corporate PR and lobbying, and led the campaign for transparency regulations for lobbyists in the UK. She also co-authored A Quiet Word: Lobbying, Crony Capitalism and Broken Politics in Britain (2015).

Chair: Prof David Coen, UCL Pro Vice Provost Global Engagement and Professor of Public Policy