Two Challenges and Two Solutions for Using the SDGs for Socially Impactful Carbon Projects.

When I was in college I spent a year studying in Egypt. This was an odd choice for a physics major. But I was intrigued by a project called “The Desert Development Center”. Located in a remote expanse between Cairo and Alexandria, academics deployed wind turbines, solar arrays, battery banks, hydroponic agriculture, and efficient buildings– climate-friendly technologies that today could be used in carbon projects.? Every Saturday I drove to the center with my mentor, Engineer Atef, and we ran tests on the renewable energy systems. I loved the problem-solving challenges of physics, but I was not inspired by lab work. I longed to be a part of solutions that could address the many challenges around the globe.?

While in Cairo, I also took a course on critical theory of international development which questioned social impact. Reading thinkers like Vandana Shiva, I learned how during the? “green revolution”? scientists from the West tried to apply genetically modified seeds in developing countries like India to increase crop yields and reduce famine. However, the plan backfired with horrific socio-economic consequences including polarization of wealth, extreme poverty, and reduction of biodiversity. As traditional practices of collecting seeds were replaced by the “modern”? practices it created a dependency on money to buy seeds and pesticides.?

I was determined to learn from this precedent in my future work. So I did something stupid and awkward. When I wrote up my thesis, I accused the Desert Development Center of being an agent of technocratic oppression. I was trying to repent for my role in trying to help from a technology perspective without having done sufficient anthropological work first,? but I ended up throwing all of these wonderful caring colleagues who had spent a year tutoring me under the bus. What a great thank you that was!

I now know that successful development interventions must simultaneously manage the dynamics of social inequality with the dynamics of technological transformation. Managing these dual dynamics is like spinning a gyroscope which is a marvel of stability when its dimensions are in balance and which collapses when not. Mastering this gyroscope creates the successful projects we need to win our fights for climate action and poverty alleviation.? Time is running out in our climate fight, so non-action is not an option.? How do we use technology to alleviate poverty and climate change without doing unintended harm to social equality??

Let’s look at this dynamic in action?

Sundararamma is a microentrepreneur who runs a small restaurant in Karnataka. Solar light enables her to work at night. She used a microloan enabled by MEC’s carbon program to buy a solar lighting system that replaced kerosene lamps.?

?Sundararamma stands out for me because she escaped the fate of 73% of women in India who are dependent on a husband for income. “India ranks 120 among 131 countries in female labor force participation rates and rates of gender-based violence remain unacceptably high” Women in India's Economic Growth (worldbank.org).? With solar, she ceased her dependence on kerosene and escaped risks of respiratory disease, burns, and fires. By increasing her income she helped advance her journey from poverty to the middle class.?

For her, microfinance amplified her personal goals and agency. The financial ability to invest in a solar lighting system to make her business more successful and her health better empowered her drive for self-improvement.? The systems of empowerment and agency were more important than the technology choice in her success.?

How do the SDGs fit in?

The carbon markets have incorporated a focus on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) so that more funding can be channeled into projects that promote sustainable development.??

The SDGs were developed at the turn of the millennium by the UN in collaboration with one of my great mentors, Professor Mohammed Yunus. The SDGs are a key step towards eradicating poverty, climate change, and 15 other fundamental problems facing our shared humanity.?

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Today, on many carbon credit buying platforms, the project description will include a count of how many SDGs the project addresses. During verification audits, these SDGs will be tracked and monitored.

In the case of Sundararamma, her self-empowerment is helping our global community achieve five SDGs:?

• SDG 1: No Poverty. ? Sundararamma’s income is less than the poverty threshold, and her increased income helps meet the goal of eliminating poverty globally.
• SDG 5: Gender Equality.? Significant barriers prevent many women in rural India from financial inclusion. Sundararamma's achievement of owning her own business reduces her dependence on others and provides her and her children with freedom and autonomy to achieve a myriad of needs including education, health, and marital choice.?
• SDG 7: Affordable Clean Energy. Sundararamma can switch from dirty fuels to solar for less than what she was previously paying.?
• SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth. Small rural stores are some of the most vulnerable enterprises. Sundararamma is building her business increasing the viability of her dignified work?
• SDG 13: Climate Action.? Sundararamma is reducing the burning of fossil fuels by switching from kerosene to solar lighting.??

Aspirationally, tracking the SDGs can help us channel more funding to support women like Sundararamma who are powerhouses when it comes to achieving social impact. However, counting the SDGs is not a replacement for understanding the dynamics at work in any development intervention.? Indeed, if that was all that mattered, the technocrats of the green revolution could have chalked up a spotless reputation. Two main challenges arise from improper use of the SDGs.?

First, simplifying development impact into an SDG shorthand may increase misunderstanding. For example, I have read a misleading article that said that Indian projects are low in SDGs compared to African ones.? So how did this misunderstanding take place? It turns out that? India does have a large volume of credits from utility-scale renewable energy projects. Utility-scale projects are important from a climate perspective but often have less local community impact than programs such as cooking interventions that engage with communities and households directly. Comparing a utility-scale project in India with a community cookstove project in Africa will certainly have fewer SDGs–? but comparing similar project types in both regions will have the same number of SDGs if the communities share similar challenges.??

Second, focusing on SDG count without considering the systems of empowerment and agency can be equally misleading. A cookstove project that uses a “giveaway” model that puts local cookstove companies out of business, and results in customers not using or valuing their cookstoves will have a low sustainable development impact. Meanwhile, a project that builds up the local economic ecosystem, like the one where Sundararamma is empowered to take a microloan for solar,? through a sustainable set of local supply networks and microfinance organizations will have a high one. And yet, the number of? SDGs the project proposes to address may be the same.?

If we want to scale up capital for climate change with social impact we need the SDGs. ?Scaling up capital flows requires clear, fair systems that can be tracked and monitored. The SDGs are the best tracking system we have so far.?

So how can we use the SDGs properly? Indeed we must if our objective is to do more good than harm. There are two steps to the constructive use of the SDGs.

The SDGs are a useful first filter in selecting a carbon project because they distinguish projects that focus on at-risk populations from those that do not. As I’ve spoken about here, including at-risk communities in our climate fight is a top priority. When used this way, the SDGs can also create a business case to provide more holistic services within a project. MEC takes a more costly approach which gives clients like Sundararamma a choice of energy products and also creates a greater SDG impact. ?I spoke further about the importance of choice as a key element of empowerment later in my talk here.?

Beyond counting SDGs, understanding the dynamics of empowerment and agency in a project can provide much more confidence in the social impact of a carbon project. This means digging deeper, working with trusted experts, meeting face-to-face, or going on-site.? At MEC, we have tried to make this easy for carbon buyers by including these features of our model on our website here and by including video interviews with some of our clients here.

Although I remain embarrassed about my college self’s gaffe, I am so grateful for the questions that my work at the Desert Development Center in Cairo and the critical theorists raised early in my career. It has been inspiring to watch a historical dialectic of social impact in action.? Women’s financial inclusion emerging in the 1980s was a tremendous improvement on the initial efforts of the green revolution of the 1960s. The 2000s saw microfinance expand beyond gender and working capital to impact all aspects of social impact from health to water to climate. Undoubtedly the future will bring better interventions than the ones we have today. I am committed to evolving MEC’s mechanism to embrace this evolution. No carbon project is perfect, but let us support the ones that push the envelope of better social impact, rather than repeating the mistakes of yesterday.?

If you or someone you know manages a corporate sustainability function or is a sourcing lead for carbon credits reach out to us at [email protected].? You can also learn more at www.microenergycredits.com. We would love to help you take sustainable and transparent climate action that empowers at-risk communities.? If you know someone who should read this, tag them in the comments below.?