Sussex Energy Group at SPRU

By Benjamin K. Sovacool, Chux Daniels and Abdulrafiu Abbas

This blog was first published on 15 December 2022 on the  Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium (TIPC) blog. The original can be found here.

Thirty years of climate research funding have overlooked the potential of experimental transformative technologies.

A new study by academics from the University of Sussex Business School Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), which used a transformative innovation framework, discovered the academic disciplines and technologies contemporarily disregarded by research funding bodies in the universal efforts to combat climate change.

By Benjamin K. Sovacool, Chux Daniels and Abdulrafiu Abbas

A version of this blog first appeared on the Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium (TIPC) blog. It can be found here.

In a newly published article, we focus on three innovations that are particularly important for Africa’s urban areas: automated vehicles, electric mobility, and ridesharing and bike-sharing. We look at four African urban areas in particular: Johannesburg (South Africa), Kigali (Rwanda), Lagos (Nigeria) and Nairobi (Kenya), and ask: what are the drivers behind these innovations in these regions? What are the potential barriers? And what implications for policy or sustainability transitions emerge? Here’s what we found.