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Emma Wilson
Dr Emma Wilson is an independent researcher and consultant based in London. She is a former principal researcher in IIED's Sustainable Markets Group; and team leader, energy
Emma Wilson left IIED in 2015.
Sustainable development, social impact assessment, corporate-community relations, community development.
Contribution of business activities to national- and local-level sustainable development; corporate-community relations; public and private sector partnerships for development; NGOs as development actors.
Consultant to oil and gas industry, Sakhalin Island, the Russian Far East (prior roles include academic researcher and environmentalist).
English, Russian (fluent), French, German, and basic Spanish
Emma Wilson's blog posts
Getting community engagement right – making sure it is 'meaningful' – is critical to the social licence to operate for oil, gas and mining projects. Government and industry responsibilities in this respect are equally important.
Donors, governments and businesses need to collaborate more strategically to finance pro-poor energy access. This is a key message from a new IIED discussion paper Sharing the Load.
What will it take to deliver modern energy services to the poor – particularly those in rural Africa who need decentralised energy? What are the barriers to transformative change and what opportunities should be seized today?
Local communities most affected by oil, gas or mining projects often receive very little information about potential impacts and benefits. Transparency initiatives need to be more inclusive and relevant to local needs.
How do you raise $1 trillion dollars of investment in 17 years? That’s what the International Energy Agency says is needed to achieve the UN’s goal of universal energy access by 2030.
From crowdfunding platforms to development banks, the private sector can have a big impact in low-income energy markets.
The world is finally waking up to the need for transparency in business deals. New EU transparency legislation was announced earlier this month and next month transparency will be a major theme at the G8 summit. This week the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has its bi-annual conference, and the UK and France have just announced they will join the initiative. The big question is can greater transparency help sustainable development?
This year sees the launch of the UN Sustainable Energy for All initiative, with UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon creating a high-level group to mobilize action. We support the goals of this initiative but – like other observers – we feel it requires more ambition and focus. Key priorities should be reducing poverty through access to modern energy services, and ensuring equitable access to electricity and consumption of energy resources (such as gas, oil and biomass).
<p>On 23 January 2012, Bulgaria’s new President, Rosen Plevneliev, will start his new job. What does this mean for <a href="http://www.iied.org/blogs/new-president-what-does-this-mean-for-bulgaria%E2%80%99s-energy-sector"><strong>Bulgaria’s energy sector</strong></a>?</p>