Francis and the Light Bulb.
How can we harness the dynamism of business, the convening power of
social networking, the insights of biology, the creative energy of
design, and countless other planetary leverage points to ensure people
and the planet thrive simultaneously? Augustus Goanue, Director of
The Center for Sustainable Energy Technology (CSET) in Liberia, has
his own bright green idea: change the law, and you change everything.
I met Augustus while working for the President of Liberia, Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf, as a legal adviser in her administration's efforts to
catalyze sustainable investment.
Augustus doesn't know Francis, but his world-changing vision touches
his life. Francis is one of the two billion people living in the vice
grip of energy poverty -- without light, without heat, without a
single electron of power. He was 7-years-old when he was ripped from
his family, school, and community to fight in Liberia's diamond-fueled
armed conflict. When I met him, five years had passed since the end
of the civil war, and Francis was now my appointed security guard in
Monrovia, Liberia.
My friend Rachel, who lives in Monrovia, recently told me two
fascinating bits of news about Francis. First, he has a girlfriend.
Second, he has a light bulb. He added that the city of Monrovia now
has street lights, too. The good: light stimulates energy and
enterprise, learning and more dynamic livelihoods. The bad: Francis'
light bulb and Monrovia's street lights -- both powered by coal --
form a piece of the seventy-million tons of global-warming pollution
that are collectively dumped into our atmosphere. We live on a young
and urbanizing planet. What if every Francis (and Francoise) had a
light bulb?
Economist Nicholas Stern estimates the Global South will need $100
billion per year by 2030 to meet the challenges of ecological and
social restoration. We need laws to unleash this investment; to drive
reality-bending models of zero-emission communities across the Global
South. Al Gore, Jonathan Lash (President of the World Resources
Institute), and others have pressed the case for a "unified earth
theory": an approach that links solutions to extreme poverty and the
environmental crisis. Augustus put this grand theory into national
action. His radical thinking spurred the creation of the Liberian
Renewable Energy and Efficiency Policy. His world-changing vision: a
thriving Liberia will not only provide clean electrons to Francis'
light bulb -- it'll give him a green job, too.
In post-conflict Liberia, success in trade, as in life, requires using
creativity by extracting the most out of an extremely limited pool of
resources. For CSET, leveraging the law to fuel disruptive clean
technologies, tap community capital, and stimulate leapfrog innovation
is not part of a wider array of strategic options -- it is the only
option. Why? Liberia's "hard" infrastructure -- transmissions lines,
national power grid, generation facilities -- was decimated by decades
of rebel bombardments. The "soft" infrastructure of energy policy is
even harder to come by. What exists of the legal and regulatory
framework is fragmented and uncoordinated. But starting from zero has
its benefits.
The Policy, which calls for a bold slate of tax reductions for green
infrastructure, investment incentives for green jobs, and clean-energy
technology transfer accelerators, holds the potential to help Liberia
leapfrog its hard infrastructure handicap by turning itself into a
clean-energy investment magnet. Its provisions would establish a
native market for clean technologies through sharing tools,
technology, and know-how -- a critical mix to triggering an ecosystem
of green, open innovation.
As Augustus relentlessly told me: "Law is a critical piece to
stimulating a distributed, clean-energy system in Liberia. We need a
clean planet and millions of jobs for our country." CSET's message of
job creation through distributed clean-energy generation is resonating
in unexpected ways. As the President's Chief of Staff emphasized
during a meeting: "Eighty-percent of our population is unemployed.
Our citizens need to see a tangible path to a peaceful future. Jobs
through renewable energy is not just an economic and environmental
issue -- it is a security and stability issue for us."
We need the bold, restorative policies that CSET is championing in
Liberia replicated across the Global South. For Francis and the
millions like him, policy development has never been so enlightening.
Josh has led a United Nations social and environmental program in
Kenya, worked for the President of Liberia to attract international
investment, taught and organized street children in Nigeria and South
Africa, and led a sustainability initiative with a Fortune 500
company. Colleges and universities frequently invite Josh to speak
about how some of the world's biggest needs align with incredible
career opportunities for young people to engage their strengths, find
meaning -- and make money at the same time.
