Low levels of energy access in sub-Saharan Africa and the acknowledgement of anthropogenic climate change have made sustainable energy products such as solar lanterns and efficient cookstoves a popular subject of international development programmes. At the same time, market-based approaches for distributing such ‘humanitarian goods’ have become increasingly prevalent. Based on ethnographic material from inside two development intermediaries, Global Village Energy Partnership (GVEP) International’s ‘Developing Energy Enterprises Project’ (DEEP) in Kenya and Uganda and SolarAid’s social enterprise ‘SunnyMoney’ in Malawi, this thesis argues that: 1) the complexity of applied market devices enhances inequalities between market actors; 2) the engendering of economic subjectivities within distribution chains can increase value-sharing; 3) there is space for both for-profit and non-profit ‘development’ intermediaries in marketisation processes, and; 4) further focus should be put on the promotion of domestic manufacturing. Stabilised market maps are used to present the activities of each organisation before turning to three frames of analysis that consider the problematisation, qualification and valuation of the energy products, the recruitment and training of supply chain ‘entrepreneurs’ and the specific market roles of development intermediaries, including provision of ‘brokerage’ services and as integral market actors. Bringing a theoretical vocabulary from economic sociology and science and technology studies into the arena of international development, the thesis reveals the extensive socio-technical configurations that constitute markets and create power asymmetries between actors. Without neglecting the vulnerabilities of the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ (BOP) as a ‘target group,’ it enhances our understanding of the shifts away from charity dependent beneficiaries’ towards ‘entrepreneurs,’ ‘customers’ and investment opportunities within sub-Saharan Africa.

Greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide and methane absorb and emit heat radiation, which contribute to global warming. Human activities such as increased emissions through burning of fossil fuels and deforestation drive this climate threat. International treaties such as the Paris agreement, enables stakeholders to mitigate effects of climate impact and create new sustainable markets. Various carbon offset projects on the voluntary market are an attempt to neutralize climate impact. In this report we identify five main project types for carbon offsets: i) forestry and land use, ii) renewable energy and energy effectivization, iii) transport, iv) waste handling and v) household devices. These project types are evaluated against UNs 17 sustainable development goals. The results show a net positive impact on goal 13, Climate action, for all project types, which is congruent with the focus on carbon offsetting. The results also show that impact varies depending on how the project is deigned. Climate offsetting has enabled multiple stakeholders to contribute to climate change mitigation. Despite many global benefits, carbon offsets have been subject to criticism in cases where the concept is not used as intended. There are currently no clear guidelines as to when focus for companies should shift from internal reduction to external reduction through offsetting. Validation of carbon offsets is another problematic aspect, as there is no one standard for the market to secure the quality of projects.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T17:17:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 27 / Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos / No contexto das sociedades contemporâneas, caracterizadas por extrema complexidade e contingência, podemos observar os efeitos de uma violenta degradação ambiental, através de inúmeros eventos naturais catastróficos, como sinais de esgotamento e desequilíbrio das interdependências ecológicas, que indicam os riscos aos quais a sociedade global e o seu ambiente estão expostos, em face da imprevisibilidade do futuro. Na medida em que este panorama se acentua na comunicação social, tende a problematizar todos os âmbitos da sociedade, revelando a insuficiência do paradigma tradicional moderno, que permeando todos os âmbitos do saber assumiu contornos multifacetados e serviu de pano de fundo para as construções na sociedade moderna, cujas comunicações produzidas pelos sistemas sociais, foram responsáveis por essa degradação do ambiente ecológico, como reflexo da utilização e controle indiscriminado dos recursos naturais, da expansão agressiva do mercado econômico, assim como, da insuficiência da dogmática jurídica / In the context of the societies contemporaries, characterized for extreme complexity and contingency, we can observe the effect of a violent ambient degradation, through innumerable catastrophic natural events, as signals of exhaustion and disequilibrium of the ecological interdependences, that indicate the risks which the global society and its environment are displayed, in face of the without forecast of the future. In the measure where this panorama if accents in the social communication, she tends to problematical all the scopes of the society, disclosing the insufficiency of the modern traditional paradigm, that promenade all the scopes of knowing assumed multifaceted contours and served of cloth of deep for the constructions in the modern society, whose communications produced for the social systems, had been responsible for this degradation of the ecological environment, as reflected of the use and indiscriminate control of the natural resources, of the aggressive expansion of the economic market and t