An evening seminar with Professor Tami Bond and Professor Jamie Bartram

Joint Priestley Centre and water@leeds & the Centre for Global Development seminar

The event will be followed a refreshments reception in School of Geography foyer.

Please register here if you would like to join us

Title: Energy Scenarios for the Bottom Billion

Professor Tami Bond, University of Illinois

Tami Bond is a Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois. Her research has followed a thread from combustion, to atmospheric chemistry and climate, to technology change and future scenarios, to the intimate relationship between technology and human choice. Her research group now spans considerations as small as a particle’s skin and as large as a national transportation system in the quest to characterize the dance between humans, “their stuff,” and the atmosphere and climate.  Professor Bond first earned two degrees in mechanical engineering, before succumbing to an interdisciplinary PhD, pursuing a NOAA Climate and Global Change post-doc, and eventually landing in a civil engineering department. She is the Nathan M. Newmark Distinguished Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and a 2014 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow.

Abstract

“Energy for use in households of low-income populations is a relatively small fraction of global energy use. However, the solid-fuel combustion providing that energy produces a large fraction of primary aerosol globally, and a high health burden, especially from indoor smoke. Energy transitions among these vulnerable populations are important for future air quality, health, and many of the Sustainable Development Goals.  Do we how know those transitions will occur? Integrated assessment models tend to model population averages, while people in the “trailing tail” may have special vulnerability.

“I’ve been thinking about this topic during my six-month sojourn at Leeds. I’ll present three ideas and I hope that the audience brings discussion and debate. First, the trailing tail can make technology transitions appear slower than expected throughout a population, and may alter the dynamics of economic growth. Second, household energy services appear simple, but they are governed by household priorities and shifts, and these overall transitions rather than their physical manifestations deserve focus. Finally, introducing transition is itself a process that requires participation and engagement.

“All of these ideas suggest a more realistic and human-centered approach to visions of future change.” Tami Bond

Title: Using Science to Influence International Water Policy

Professor Jamie Bartram, University of North Carolina

Don and Jennifer Holzworth Distinguished Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Director, Water Institute at UNC

Dr. Bartram’s research interests focus on the connections between water (including sanitation and hygiene) and health — especially the links between science, policy and practice, in both developing and developed countries. They include technologies for urban sanitation renewal; management systems for drinking-water safety and rural drinking-water supply; emerging issues (including water scarcity and climate change) and their impacts on system sustainability; health system activities on water and sanitation; and sector capacity issues such as monitoring, the costs and impacts of interventions and effective regulation and financing.