Off-Grid delegation looks back on the Royal Geographical Society’s Annual International Conference

September 7^th 2018 – Organized by the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), in collaboration with the Institute of British Geographers, the RGS’ Annual International Conference took place at Cardiff University from August 28^th – 31^st 2018. 1,700 participants from more than 50 countries exchanged views on various geographic research topics within a total of 370 sessions, focusing on the subject of “landscapes”. The topics covered a broad range from economic-geographical research questions over gender-relevant to historical-geographical analyses, in various regional rural or urban contexts.

Paul Bertheau, researcher in the RLI Research Field Off-Grid Systems chaired a session titled “Contested energy landscapes? Advancing sustainable energy supply on Southeast Asian islands”. Three presentations addressed the specific challenges of the Southeast Asian island states of the Philippines and Indonesia: Christoph Stemmler intern at RLI, presented the results of his analysis of Philippine policy instruments with regard to renewable energy. Subsequently, Ridwan Kurniawan from the University of Sussex revealed problems and recommendations for renewable energy in Indonesia. RLI researcher Clara Jütte then presented the results of her household survey on a small Philippine island on the socio-economic impact of an electrification project.

In addition to interesting insights into the variety of geographical research fields, the three RLI researchers were able to take home positive feedback on their contributions as well as inspiring input from the discussion on energy transition in countries of the Global South.