Research Area: Global Health Ethics

Apply Now: Joint Postdoctoral Fellowship in Global Health Ethics

Call for Applications

The Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics (BI), Makerere University College of Health Sciences (MakCHS) and University of Oxford Ethox Centre (Ethox) invite applications for the Fogarty African Bioethics Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program (FAB-PDF) – an 18-month advanced bioethics postdoctoral training program for scholars from sub-Saharan Africa who hold a bioethics-related PhD. Funded by the Fogarty International Center, NIH, USA, the program focuses broadly on global health ethics, with particular opportunities for fellows to concentrate on issues involving global infectious disease ethics and advanced international research ethics. The fellowship will begin approximately January 13, 2025.

Opportunities

  • Complete fellowship activities across multiple institutional contexts:
    • 4.5 months based at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, USA
    • 1 month based at MakCHS in Kampala, Uganda
    • 1 month based at Ethox in Oxford, UK
    • 11.5 months based at the postdoctoral fellow’s home institution
  • Access bioethics mentorship, coursework, seminars and scholarly/practice/training networks
  • Conduct individual and international collaborative mentored research and writing
  • Participate in international global health ethics and research ethics conferences
  • Plan and complete a funded global health ethics leadership project

Eligibility

  • Current national of a country in sub-Saharan Africa
  • Completed a bioethics-related PhD or related doctoral research degree, generally within 5 yrs of the fellowship start

Preference will be given to candidates who:

  • Previously completed an NIH Fogarty-sponsored bioethics training (at any level)
  • Previously worked on global health ethics, infectious disease ethics, or international research ethics topics
  • Have strong discipline-appropriate methods training used to conduct bioethics research and writing
  • Have a record of bioethics scholarly publication, presentation, and/or professional service
  • Hold a faculty position in an institution of higher-education in sub-Saharan Africa, or demonstrate institutional commitment to providing such a position

Salary/Benefits

  • Stipend of $4,707 USD/month (pre-tax) to cover accommodations, meals, and incidentals during the 6.5 months while in residency at BI, MakCHS and Ethox, plus health benefits
  • Airfare, ground transport and visa fees for residency requirements; modest budgets for leadership project,technology and supplies; fee coverage for required courses and conference registration

Applications are due by June 1, 2024 and must be uploaded via Interfolio (http://apply.interfolio.com/143696).

Candidates must submit:

  • CV
  • Personal statement describing: 1) motivation to pursue the fellowship, 2) nature of previous bioethics training, 3) bioethics scholarly research and writing interests, including description of any works in progress that will be completed during the fellowship, and 4) idea(s) for a potential leadership project (nature of the project, how it aligns with local priorities, personal skills that will be advanced, and any relevant preparations)
  • Two (2) letters of recommendation
  • One (1) letter of institutional commitment, signaling sufficient leave from employment for all fellowship activities, and a commitment to, at minimum, position retention and support in undertaking the leadership project and in integrating bioethics capacity on completion
  • Copies of graduate transcript(s)

For more information, please contact Joseph Ali, JD ([email protected]) and/or Nancy E. Kass, ScD ([email protected]).

Apply Now: Postdoctoral Fellowship in Ethics, Global Health and Infectious Disease

Call for Applications

The Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities at the University of Oxford have established a Collaborative Bioethics Research and Training Program with support from the Wellcome Trust.  Through this partnership, we have created joint post-doctoral training opportunities.  We are pleased to invite applications from uniquely qualified individuals who are committed to interdisciplinary and transnational collaboration and who have a particular interest in the ethical issues at the intersection of global health and infectious disease.  This two-year fellowship will begin September 1, 2024.

Qualifications, Responsibilities and Opportunities

  • Doctoral-level degree in bioethics, philosophy, public health, law, medicine, social science, history or other relevant discipline, with fewer than five years of post-PhD research by the start date.
  • Scholarly interests in ethical issues at the intersection of global health and infectious disease.
  • Primary, in-residence appointment at Johns Hopkins and a residency requirement at the Wellcome Center. The exact nature, duration and timing of the Oxford residency is flexible and case-specific.
  • Fellows will become integrated members of the ongoing post-doctoral training programs at both Institutions and have access to a wide range of activities and opportunities, including:
    • Regular seminars, presentations and discussions with leaders in the field;
    • Individualized research program;
    • Bioethics coursework and mentorship;
    • Professional development training;
    • Teaching opportunities (commensurate with experience and background);
    • Participation in outreach efforts via social media

Salary/Benefits

  • $62,500 per year, plus health benefits
  • Travel for the residency requirement and modest living expenses when overseas
  • A modest discretionary fund for travel to relevant conferences

To apply: The application window is now open. Applications are due by May 10, 2024 and must be uploaded via Interfolio (http://apply.interfolio.com/143815). Applications should include:   

  • Cover Letter
  • Personal statement in support of your application
  • CV
  • Copy of Graduate Transcript(s)
  • Writing Sample
  • Two Letters of Reference

For more information on the Berman-Oxford Joint Post-doctoral Fellowship Program, please contact the Berman Institute’s Director of Education Initiatives (Gail Geller, ScD, MHS at [email protected]) or Associate Director for Global Programs (Joseph Ali, JD at [email protected]).

Berman Institute Faculty Receive NIH Grant to Help Establish Bioethics Training Program

Berman Institute faculty have received a grant from the National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center called the Fogarty African Bioethics Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program (FAB-PDF), a 5-year, $1.2 million grant that provides advanced bioethics training for scholars from sub-Saharan Africa. FAB-PDF will provide an 18-month postdoctoral training program to select scholars who hold a bioethics-related PhD. Ten postdocs will be selected over the course of the grant.

Joseph Ali, the Institute’s associate director for global programs and associate professor in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health will co-lead the project along with Nancy Kass, deputy director for public health at the Berman Institute and professor of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School and Nelson Sewankambo, professor of medicine at Makerere University College of Health Sciences in Uganda. The grant broadly focuses on global bioethics, however, scholars can focus on specific areas of global bioethics such as global infectious disease ethics and advanced international research ethics.

FAB-PDF is a renewal from a previous grant launched in 2017 by the Fogarty International Center that provided bioethics postdoctoral training. The renewal of the grant includes new components such as training opportunities at Johns Hopkins University, Makerere University in Uganda, the University of Oxford in the UK, and each fellow’s home institution. The training opportunities will include coursework, a mentored global health ethics leadership project, and bioethics professional networks.

FAB-PDF has the following aims:

  • To provide advanced scholarly research training and mentorship to a select group of PhD-level African bioethics scholars.
  • To foster leadership development in global bioethics relevant to fellows’ sustained professional visibility and success.
  • To generate individual and group professional bioethics networking opportunities across international bioethics organizations.

Other faculty on the project include Gail Geller, director of education initiatives at the Berman Institute and professor in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Maria Merritt, associate professor at the Berman Institute and in the Department of International Health at the Bloomberg School, and Andrea Ruff, MD, associate professor in the Department of International Health at the Bloomberg School.

Call for Applications: Fogarty African Bioethics Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program

Joint Postdoctoral Fellowship in Global Health Ethics
Fogarty African Bioethics Post-Doctoral Fellowship (FAB-PDF) Program

Call for Applications  

The Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics (BI), Makerere University College of Health Sciences (MakCHS) and University of Oxford Ethox Centre (Ethox) invite applications for the Fogarty African Bioethics Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program (FAB-PDF) –an 18-month advanced bioethics postdoctoral training program for scholars from sub-Saharan Africa who hold a bioethics-related PhD. Funded by the Fogarty International Center, NIH, USA, the program focuses broadly on global health ethics, with particular opportunities for fellows to concentrate on issues involving global infectious disease ethics and advanced international research ethics.  The fellowship will begin approximately January 15, 2024.

Opportunities

  • Complete fellowship activities across multiple institutional contexts:
      • 4.5 months based at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, USA
      • 1 month based at MakCHS in Kampala, Uganda
      • 1 month based at Ethox in Oxford, UK
      • 11.5 months based at the postdoctoral fellow’s home institution
    • Access bioethics mentorship, coursework, seminars and scholarly/practice/training networks
    • Conduct individual and international collaborative mentored research and writing
    • Participate in international global health ethics and research ethics conferences
    • Plan and complete a funded global health ethics leadership project

     Eligibility

    • Current national of a country in sub-Saharan Africa
    • Completed a bioethics-related PhD or related doctoral research degree, generally within 5 yrs of the fellowship start

    Preference will be given to candidates who:  

    • Previously completed an NIH Fogarty-sponsored bioethics training (at any level)
    • Previously worked on global health ethics, infectious disease ethics, or international research ethics topics
    • Have strong discipline-appropriate methods training used to conduct bioethics research and writing
    • Have a record of bioethics scholarly publication, presentation, and/or professional service
    • Hold a faculty position in an institution of higher-education in sub-Saharan Africa, or demonstrate institutional commitment to providing such a position

    Salary/Benefits

    • Stipend of $4,707 USD/month (pre-tax) to cover accommodations, meals, and incidentals during the months while in residency at BI, MakCHS and Ethox, plus health benefits
    • Airfare, ground transport and visa fees for residency requirements; modest budgets for leadership project, technology and supplies; fee coverage for required courses and conference registration

    Applications are due by June 30, 2023 and must be uploaded via Interfolio (http://apply.interfolio.com/124960). Candidates must submit: 

    • CV
    • Personal statement describing: 1) motivation to pursue the fellowship, 2) nature of previous bioethics training, 3) bioethics scholarly research and writing interests, including description of any works in progress that will be completed during the fellowship, and 4) idea(s) for a potential leadership project (nature of the project, how it aligns with local priorities, personal skills that will be advanced, and any relevant preparations)
    • Two (2) letters of recommendation
    • One (1) letter of institutional commitment, signaling sufficient leave from employment for all fellowship activities, and a commitment to, at minimum, position retention and support in undertaking the leadership project and in integrating bioethics capacity on completion
    • Copies of graduate transcript(s)

    For more information, please contact Joseph Ali, JD ([email protected]) and/or Nancy E. Kass, ScD ([email protected]).

    The FAB-PDF is sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Fogarty International Center (Grant # D43TW010512)

JHU Collaborates with Addis Ababa University to Launch Research Ethics Master’s Program

In January 2023, faculty and staff of the Johns Hopkins University-Addis Ababa University Research Ethics Training Program (JHU-AAU RETP) gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for a symposium and launch of the Research Ethics Specialty Track within the AAU Master of Public Health (MPH) program.

Over the past three years – with support from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Fogarty International Center (Grant # R25TW001604) and the leadership of Dr. Adamu Addissie (AAU) – the JHU-AAU RETP has focused its efforts on curriculum development and approvals; strengthening capacity of AAU faculty to teach new courses in bioethics through training and mentorship; raising awareness for bioethics and research ethics through outreach, public seminars and creation of a MPH-wide Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) course; engaging government leaders in Ethiopia to support ongoing efforts to advance research ethics networks and policies; and piloting of the new MPH Specialty Track.

“We are delighted to have this opportunity to work together to generate the first bioethics-related Master’s training program in Ethiopia,” said Joseph Ali, faculty of the JHU Berman Institute and Bloomberg School of Public Health and co-director of the JHU-AAU RETP. “The success of the program depends greatly on the vision and support of key leaders at AAU and Nationally, and the dedication of AAU and JHU faculty and staff. We are thankful for the support and commitments.”

The official program launch in January celebrated these formative efforts, shared emerging needs and opportunities for bioethics in Ethiopia and the region, and recognized the matriculation of a cohort of nine students into the Master’s program.  The event, which was attended by over 60 people, was chaired by Prof. Yeweyenhareg Feleke and included speeches from distinguished guests of the Ethiopian Ministry of Education, AAU administration, and a keynote delivered by Dr. Paulina Tindana (University of Ghana; Accra, Ghana). A panel that included guest speakers Dr. Erisa Mwaka (Makerere University College of Health Sciences; Kampala, Uganda), Dr. Violet Naanyu (Moi University; Eldoret, Kenya), Dr. Yimtubezinash Woldeamanuel (AAU; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) and Dr. Telahun Teka (National Research Ethics Board; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) was also organized to share reflections on the future of research ethics in Africa. This was followed by a presentation by Joseph Ali on global efforts to establish mechanisms for benchmarking ethics oversight of health-related research. In the days following, students had the opportunity to begin to share their hopes for their Master’s training and receive feedback from the program and invited guests on early thesis research concepts. Information about local and global bioethics networks and resources were also shared.

In addition to the symposium and meetings with students, the team met with AAU program faculty for a curriculum workshop, and hosted a meeting – chaired by Dr. Andrea Ruff (JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health) – which gathered Institutional Review Board (IRB) leaders from across Addis Ababa for a discussion on IRB capacity strengthening and networking.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged international collaborative training programs, through creative adaptations, personal commitments and supportive institutions, the JHU-AAU-RETP has established a foundation for what it hopes will be decades of successful bioethics training to advance high quality research and practice.  On the final evening, while the team gathered for dinner, Dr. Tindana offered the well-known proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Events throughout the week were coordinated by Lealem Wagaw (AAU) and Elise Wilson (JHU). For more information about the JHU-AAU RETP, please contact [email protected] or [email protected].

Diagnosis of Food Systems Worldwide Provides Guidance for Ensuring Healthy Diets and Environmental Sustainability

Food systems worldwide need better governance and accountability to ensure that they deliver healthy diets while safeguarding the environment and natural resources. But decision-makers often lack data about achieving these goals and even where such information does exist, tools are lacking to assess food systems’ performance. A paper published today in PLOS is the first of its kind, drawing on more than 600,000 data points, to develop a methodology for diagnosing food systems’ performance to help inform food systems governance and accountability around the globe.

“This paper presents a diagnostic methodology for 39 indicators representing food supply, food environments, nutrition outcomes, and environmental outcomes to assess performance of national food systems,” said co-author Jessica Fanzo, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food Policy and Ethics at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. “This information can be used to generate actions and decisions on where and how to intervene in food systems to improve human and planetary health.”

Food systems include the people, places, and methods involved in producing, storing, processing and packaging, transporting, and consuming food. They can consist of either long or short supply chains and be global or local. Johns Hopkins University and The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) launched a Food Systems Dashboard in 2020 to provide a single platform for food systems data relevant to diet and environmental outcomes, and to enable the use of these data by policymakers, non-governmental organizations, civil society leaders, educators, and researchers. The Dashboard draws upon more than 30 sources to provide data from over 200 indicators across 230 counties and territories, to support informed policy making and other uses.

The authors of the paper, “Diagnosing the performance of food systems to increase accountability toward healthy diets and environmental sustainability,” drew upon the Dashboard to establish parameters for likely challenges within national food systems.

“We hope this diagnosis will aid the interpretation of food systems data, so that decision-makers can see what is going relatively well as well as what is challenging in each setting and consider a range of possible actions to address challenges and maintain successes. It can be used to identify an array of possible actions to improve food security, diet, health, and environmental outcomes,” said Anna Herforth, of Harvard University, the first author of the paper who led the study.

The paper includes a global assessment and country case studies to illustrate how the diagnostics could spur decision options available to countries. For example, in Tanzania, the paper’s authors identify the challenge of child stunting and recommend policy and actions that may be appropriate to addressing it, such as investing in market infrastructure to enhance access to nutritious food and utilizing social protection platforms to enhance the purchasing power of women, especially around pregnancy.

“No single action can fix food systems, but governments, NGOs, civil society and businesses can each start to take action. We hope these diagnostics are a step towards better monitoring of food systems performance that can lead to stronger governance and accountability of food systems and their transformation,” said Stella Nordhagen, co-author of the paper, and Senior Technical Specialist at GAIN.

Jessica Fanzo named to Group Seeking Systemic Solutions for Climate Change’s Impact on Food Systems

Berman Institute faculty member Jessica Fanzo has been named to the recently launched Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD) subcommittee on Systemic Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Agricultural, Nutrition, and Food Systems. The subcommittee will lead transdisciplinary evidence gathering to advise BIFAD with independent recommendations to improve U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) programming and strategies.

“As a global community, we must act quickly to avoid the most severe consequence of climate changeon the world’s food supply and the health, food security, and safety of the world’s most vulnerable populations,” said Fanzo.

Dr. Fanzo is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food Policy and Ethics at the Berman Institute of Bioethics, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. She also serves as the Director of Hopkins’ Global Food Policy and Ethics Program, and as Director of Food & Nutrition Security at the JHU Alliance for a Healthier World.

“I am honored to serve on the BIFAD Subcommittee on Systemic Solutions to Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation. Alongside twelve other global experts, we recently began our work supporting BIFAD and USAID toward our shared goal of a resilient, prosperous, and equitable world with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Together, we have the important task of exploring evidence-based climate change action in programs aimed at safeguarding agricultural productivity, inclusive food systems changes, and poverty- and malnutrition-reduction objectives.”

The subcommittee is envisioned to support USAID’s role in accelerating systems change and transformative climate change adaptation and mitigation approaches in agriculture, food systems and nutrition, and in targeting climate finance to benefit smallholder farmers.  Subcommittee members bring a breadth of expertise across disciplines, diversity of views, and organizational perspectives to tackle the greatest challenge to food security.

GLIDE Recognizes Nelson Sewankambo for Outstanding Work in Global Bioethics

Professor Nelson Sewankambo was presented with the inaugural biannual GLIDE Global Health Ethics Leadership Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution in the field of global bioethics.

In the early 1980s Professor Sewankambo was one of the first physicians in Uganda to recognise HIV/AIDS as a new disease. In addition to his leadership in HIV/AIDS research, Professor Sewankambo has devoted much of his professional attention to the advancement of medical and bioethics education, research, and service in Uganda and the African continent. He helped build the research capacity strengthening consortium (THRiVE) which involved seven African institutions and two universities in the UK, and provided leadership for the Initiative for Strengthening Research Capacity in Africa (ISHReCA).

In presenting the award at the Global Health and Bioethics International Conference on 28 June, Professor Joseph Ali, of the Berman Institute of Bioethics, said:

‘Professor Sewankambo is a visionary who has paved the way for bioethics to flourish in Uganda and across Africa through regional and global partnerships.  He has long-recognised that the work of bioethics requires not only individual passion, but also deep commitment and coordination within and across institutions. His efforts have inspired countless researchers, practitioners, and organisations to direct their attention to the goal of strengthening bioethics systems and answering critical bioethics questions for the benefit of society.’

Professor Sewankambo is a director of the NIH Fogarty-funded Makerere International Health Research Ethics Master’s Training Programme, the Makerere University International Bioethics Doctoral Research Training Programme, and the Fogarty African Bioethics Consortium-Postdoctoral Fellowship programme. He is also a key member of the International Expert Network for the Oxford-Johns Hopkins Global Infectious Disease Ethics (GLIDE) Collaborative.

3rd Annual SNFBA Summer Course to focus on Ethics and Research: Lessons from the Pandemic

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Bioethics Academy (SNFBA) is proud to announce that it will be hosting the 3rd Annual Bioethics Summer Course at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens, Greece June 19-22, 2022.

The Bioethics Summer Course is an annual training activity of the SNFBA whose goal is to support and enhance knowledge and awareness for bioethics among biomedical researchers, policy professionals, and healthcare administrators in Greece.  The course is co-directed by Prof. Jeffrey Kahn, the Andreas C. Dracopoulos Director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics (JHU), and Prof. Effy Vayena, Head of the Health Ethics and Policy Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH).

The 3rd Annual Bioethics Summer Course  will be a three-day intensive course focusing on Ethics and Research: Lessons from the Pandemic and, as in past years, will include lectures from distinguished bioethics experts from Johns Hopkins and ETH Zurich, and in-depth small group discussion of case studies and lecture topics.

Cost

The SNFBA is free to accepted participants, and fully supported through the generosity of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). Airfare and lodging is provided to accepted participants from outside of Greece and lodging (and travel where required) is provided to accepted participants who reside outside of Athens.  The total number of participants is limited to 50 to preserve a high-quality experience.

Eligibility 

Applications are encouraged from professionals working in institutions in Greece and the Balkans, with the following experience and expertise:

  • Professionals working in, or overseeing, Clinical Research
  • Medical Students and Pharmaceutical Students interested in developing capacity in Clinical Research
  • Members of committees performing Biomedical Research Ethics Review
  • Professionals working in health and science policy

Applications:

Applications are now being accepted online until April 11, 2022 but may close earlier if 50-person capacity is reached.

Required Application Documentation

  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Short Personal Statement no more than 250 words including why the Course is of interest to you, your motivation for applying, and how the Course will be of use in your professional work and professional development

Apply for the 3rd annual SNFBA Bioethics Summer Course now.

For questions please contact Katerina Ligomenides ([email protected])

Work Begins on Project to Incorporate Human Rights-Based Frameworks into Food Systems Policy and Planning

The Consortium for People-Centered Food Systems, led by Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Jessica Fanzo at Johns Hopkins University, has initiated the first phase of its ten-year effort to foster human rights-based approaches to food systems policy and planning. This effort seeks to strengthen the capacity of governments, peasants, and other people living in rural areas to adopt and incorporate human rights frameworks such as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) into food policy and food systems action.

Adopted in 2018, UNDROP proposes that countries work with rural food system actors to create policies that promote and protect the right to adequate food, food security and food sovereignty, sustainable and equitable food systems, and others, such as the right to land, water, and seeds.

This interdisciplinary project seeks to use advocacy, build capacity, and develop accountability tools to better integrate human rights frameworks into the food systems policy context. Led by Dr. Fanzo, the project consortium includes academics, development practitioners, ethicists, and lawyers from Johns Hopkins University, Rikolto, International Institute of Rural Reconstruction, and CIAT on behalf of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. The project is jointly funded by member organizations and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

“Small-scale farmers produce more than 80% of the world’s food, but this diverse population suffers disproportionately from hunger, poverty, discrimination, violent conflict, and climate change. Human rights instruments like UNDROP represent a major step forward in protecting their human rights, but more work is needed to integrate them into food systems policy effectively,” says Dr. Fanzo.

Dr. Fanzo is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food Policy and Ethics at the Berman Institute of Bioethics, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. She also serves as the Director of Hopkins’ Global Food Policy and Ethics Program, and as Director of Food & Nutrition Security at the JHU Alliance for a Healthier World.  Faculty joining Dr. Fanzo in this work from JHU include Drs. Leonard Rubenstein, Anne Barnhill, Swetha Manohar, and Rebecca McLaren.

Initial project activities will take place in Cambodia, Ethiopia, Honduras, and Uganda, and are funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. In each of these countries, project team members are partnering with Rikolto, IIRR, CIAT, and local stakeholders to assess the food systems context and identify potential areas for improvement in awareness, capacity, accountability, and policy coherence. Later phases of the project will aim to scale the approach to other countries and produce global guidance on putting people’s rights at the center of food systems. In the next few months, countries will begin by sensitizing the project in the four countries with local stakeholders and governments and will produce a paper on what it means in practical terms to integrate rights into food systems action and policy.

For media inquiries, contact: Jamie Smith, [email protected]

Provide Tax Breaks to Encourage Electric Vehicle Manufacturers to Produce Low-Cost Models for a Fair Net Zero Transition, New Study Recommends

Investors in solar panels and electric vehicle manufacturers should be granted tax breaks incentivizing them to produce lower-cost models of their products within the purchasing power of lower income households. That’s the recommendation of energy experts, including the Berman Institute of Bioethics’ Jess Fanzo, exploring the challenges of delivering a fair and just transition to a net zero society as detailed in a new research paper published January 31 in Nature Human Behaviour.

While the UK Government’s newly published Net Zero Strategy proposes new requirements for car manufacturers to produce a greater proportion of clean vehicles every year, the paper’s authors at the University of Sussex, Johns Hopkins University and Indiana University want this to go further to ensure electric vehicles, and other low carbon technologies, are an affordable option for a much broader range of socio-economic groups.

The study also recommends the widespread introduction of pay-as-you-go schemes, leasing programs and community/cooperative models to lower the financial burden of adopting low-carbon technologies for low- and moderate-income households.

“We must come to craft policy and action that is more aware of tensions in equity across demographic, spatial, environmental, and temporal dimensions so they can be minimized or maybe even eliminated,” said Fanzo, the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food & Agricultural Policy and Ethics at Johns Hopkins. “Whether a future low-carbon society liberates and empowers vulnerable groups or threatens to further trap them into cycles of poverty and precarity will depend on the actions we take collectively in the next few decades.”

The study also calls for wider use of climate and citizen assemblies to help ensure the active participation of a cross-section of society in shaping significant changes towards a net zero future. Specifically, targeted engagements with organizations working closely with women, the elderly or racially marginalized groups could help pre-empt unintended negative impacts of low-carbon technology, the academics recommended.

Benjamin K. Sovacool, Professor of Energy Policy in the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex Business School, said “Emerging innovations are often seen as solutions that will benefit society while transforming various energy, building, or food systems. But low-carbon innovations are not automatically just, equitable or even green and our research shows how such technologies and behaviours can introduce new inequalities and reaffirm existing ones. At the very least, they can reflect unequal access to technologies and to incentives to adopt them and disparities in affordability. At the very worst, such innovations can sometimes disproportionately affect some groups while benefitting others, and thus serve to exacerbate inequality and injustice.”

The study also recommends that just transition compensation and assistance strategies should be expanded far beyond those currently considered for communities and individuals directly impacted by the phasing out of fossil fuel industries. The authors argue a more refined and nuanced analysis needs to be informed by intersectional approaches taking a more complete view of the social groups most vulnerable to the impact of the net zero transition.

The research goes on to recommend steps to protect future generations from being unfairly burdened with the net zero transition and limit the temptation of politicians to pass more costly and political contentious policies onto their successors or businesses to delay longer-term reform and in favour of immediate profit.

The authors advocate wider use of institutional innovations using indirect representation to advocate on behalf of social groups set to be impacted by current policy decisions in the future highlighting the good practices of the parliaments and assemblies which have ombudspeople for future generations to safeguard their interests.

In the study, the academics examined how four innovations in low-carbon technology and behaviour create complications and force trade-offs on different equity dimensions:

Improved cookstoves and heating: Equity risks and trade-offs include improved cookstoves can cement uneven patterns of work and domestic life and leave many women responsible for maintenance; and some improved cookstoves may still rely on fossil fuels/carbon-intensive electricity and thus contribute to deforestation or climate change.

Battery electric vehicles: Risks include further embedding private motorized travel to detriment of walking, active/public transport alternatives; charging point availability biased in favour of urban users; EV tax incentives currently favour wealthy households; conventional cars replaced by EVs in developed markets end up in other markets where they continue to pollute.

Household solar panels: Risks include requirements of owning a building or access to space to mount panels, take-up is shaped along race, space, income, and class divisions, panels are made with toxic materials and generate hazardous waste flows.

Food-sharing: Risks include strong urban and city bias to food sharing adoption, demographics tilted towards wealthier homes, larger homes, and homes with children, with higher rates of digital literacy; food sharing can lead to missorted waste or wasted mishandled food.