Climate change mitigation necessitates the replacement of fossil fuels with low-carbon energy, yet emerging economies demand a fast-expanding electrical supply. The existing understanding of energy transitions in developing nations is scattered across disciplines and insufficient to guide policy decisions.
This dissertation aims to improve the understanding of energy transitions in developing countries, using Bangladesh as the main case study. The research uses a three-stage research design, tracing technological and institutional path dependencies over the fifty years of Bangladesh's energy systems. It focuses on how energy policies respond to persistent "energy crises" and distills common patterns and institutional characteristics that structure Bangladesh's energy choices. It examines the adoption of four energy technologies: low-carbon solar and nuclear power, fossil-based LNG and coal power, and fossil-based LNG and coal power. The study also compares Bangladesh and Vietnam to refine and validate the understanding of energy transition mechanisms.
The dissertation finds that socio-political mechanisms dominate techno-economic ones in energy transitions in Bangladesh, contrasting with the widespread claim that declining costs of low-carbon technologies would accelerate global adoption. The dissertation also questions the common policy prescription for liberalizing electricity markets and increasing electricity prices to ensure the fast uptake of renewables. The findings contribute to two debates in the literature: the speed of adoption of granular vs. lumpy energy technologies and the relative importance of global or national innovation systems in facilitating the diffusion of technology.
Thesis defense committee:
Supervisor:
Dr. Aleh Cherp (CEU)
Internal member:
Dr. Michael LaBelle (CEU)
External member:
Dr. Jessica Jewell, Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Division of Physical Resource Theory, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
Opponent:
doc. Mgr. Jan Osička, Department of International Relations and European Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic