Technology And Innovation Policy For Island Sustainability

Kalim Shah is currently leading the new Island Policy Lab at the University of Delaware. He is a globally recognized expert on policy and regulatory design and implementation in island states, particularly in environmental, energy, climate and corporate sustainability fields. From his 'institutional structuration' model for meeting national clean energy targets; his 'triple-steam' sectoral climate adaptation approach; his 'legitimacy gap' analysis for building public-private partnerships; and his island-adapted methods for regulatory impact assessments, Kalim continues advancing applied island research. With over thirty research publications, his innovative approaches are being applied by governments, multilateral banks and the private sector in island contexts. Most recently he completed Guyana's first National Climate Change Policy and is now working with Guam and the Marianas Islands to model their national clean energy transition pathways. He is originally from Trinidad & Tobago, is a Fulbright Scholar and holds a Doctorate in Public Policy.

Dr. Laura Hosman is Associate Professor at Arizona State University, holding a joint appointment in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and in The Polytechnic School. Her action-oriented work focuses on the role for new technologies in developing countries, particularly in education. Hosman is also co-founder and director of SolarSPELL, an offline solar-powered digital library initiative designed for low-resource locations. The SolarSPELL (Solar Powered Educational Learning Library) is portable, rugged, and filled with localized, open-access content, and paired with locally-based trainers, in order to build critical skills like information literacy.

Atul’s work at the University of the South Pacific, a regional university, involves teaching and researching in materials/devices/policies and community engagement for renewable energy development in the island countries. He is also an adjunct associate professor at SPREE, UNSW Australia. He has been a consultant to SEFP (WB), IUCN, ADB and UNEP among others. He is a member of the Pacific Energy Advisory Group and an IEEE Senior Member. He has contributed to Fiji’s Low Emissions Development Strategy report, National Communications
to UNFCCC and REN21 Renewables Status Reports. He is a strong supporter of energy for productive use and recommends a synergistic approach to SDGs.

Anton E. Edmunds is the Ambassador of St. Lucia to the United States and the Permanent Representative of St. Lucia to the Organization of American States (OAS). He is also Saint Lucia’s High Commissioner (non-resident) to Canada, and Ambassador (non-resident) to Mexico.

Prior to taking up his appointments, Ambassador Edmunds worked in the private sector, providing advisory services to governments, businesses, and associations with interests in the Caribbean Basin region. Areas of focus included energy, competitiveness, maritime security, trade facilitation, financial services, business continuity/disaster responsiveness, and tourism.

From 1998 – 2009, Ambassador Edmunds worked with Caribbean Central American Action (CCAA), an independent corporation that promotes private sector-led economic development in the Caribbean
Central America. While at CCAA he was Chief of Party for a successful public/private sector program to protect over US $1billion in trade with Haiti.

He is a contributor to the Inter-American Dialogue’s Latin American Advisor publication; has been a Senior Associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS); and the Chair of the Caribbean Program at the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute. He was also the coordinator for a World Bank funded Caribbean Sustainable Energy and Strategy (C-SERMS) Platform.

Ambassador Edmunds has a Bachelor’s degree from The Catholic University of America and a Master’s Degree from the American University.

Arthur Trembanis is the director of the Coastal Sediments, Hydrodynamics and Engineering Laboratory (CSHEL) in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment at the University of Delaware. The work of CSHEL involves the development and utilization of advanced oceanographic instrumentation, particularly autonomous underwater vehicles for seafloor mapping and benthic habitat characterization. He received a bachelor's degree in geology from Duke University in 1998, a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Sydney in 1999, and a Ph.D. in marine sciences from the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences in 2004.

Dr. Philipp Blechinger is an international expert in renewable energy and rural electrification. He holds a PhD in engineering. In 2011, he joined the RLI and focused on the analysis of island energy systems by conducting his PhD project "Barriers for implementing renewable energies on Caribbean islands". Additionally, he started to develop the off-grid systems research group, which he is currently representing as team leader. Here he managed and conducted a wide range of international projects on energy access and island energy supply. Examples include the rural electrification planning for Nigeria and the support to the Department of Energy of the Philippines to improve electrification efforts. In other projects he evaluated the economic potential of renewable energy within island systems for companies like Siemens and ABB. Apart from that he continuously publishes and shares research results on conferences and in scientific journals (>50) acting as reviewer and co-editor as well. In 2019 Philipp was appointed Visiting Scholar in the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) of the University of California, Berkeley as part of the C-BEAR+ project and a selected member of the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA) at the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Pedro is known for organizing the first TEDx of Cabo Verde and for being the founder of Generation B-Bright, a youth empowerment organization. In 2017 he won the prize of “We are Cabo Verde - Best of the Year” in the category of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and was selected by the US Government to participate in the YALI Program. In 2018 he was selected by MIPAD as one of the Most Influential People in the World of Afro Descent in the world under 40 years old and was chosen by former President Obama to be part of his first leadership initiative in Africa – Obama Leaders. At the age of 31, he became the youngest member of the current Government of Cabo Verde by being appointed as Secretary of State for Innovation & TVET. Pedro was also nominated in 2018 for the "Young World Politician of the Year" Award by One Young World and he was on the 2018 list of Apolitical of 100 Future Leaders: The World’s Most Influential Young People in Government. He designed the model for the creation of the Prime Minister's Youth Council and the innovation program "Cabo Verde Digital".

She is an expert in the processes around climate technologies, their enabling frameworks, and the international policy context around it, and focus on the provision of research and advisory support on developing countries’ technology needs, tailored to different international, national and local partners. She manages the GEF-funded global Technology Needs Assessment (TNA) project, which supports developing countries in identifying and analyzing their climate technology priorities, and in identifying policies, strategies and practices to upscale the use of these technologies. The Project is implemented in close collaboration with UN Environment and the UNFCCC Technology Mechanism. Sara holds a PhD in socio-economic aspects of adaptation to climate change.

CEO of AlgEternal and Global Head of Sustainability of KindEarth.Tech, David is recognized by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service as an individual “… with extraordinary ability in science and business, sustainable development, and renewable resource management and applications [science]”. Trained as a Marine Biologist, specializing in Ichthyology and Taxonomy, David has over 25 years’ experience in sustainable development on both the regulatory and regulated industry sides of the divide. Following his Marine Biology degree, David then went on to pursue Environmental Studies with an emphasis in Policy and Law intending to bridge the gap between Science and Policy.
David received the 2004 Bishop Robert Smith Award from the College of Charleston in South Carolina, USA—the highest award to any graduate, and the 2002 Betty Spence Conservation Award from the South Carolina Wildlife Federation. He belongs to the Phi Kappa Phi Honour Society, the Golden Key Honour Society, and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.
In service to the Algae Industry, he sits on the Algae Biomass Organization (ABO) Board of Directors; the Technical Advisory Board for the proposed ABO Algae Center of Excellence; and on the Industry Advisory Board of the University of Houston College of Technology. He holds membership in the Phycological Society of America; the Smithsonian Institution; and the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. David pays it forward, being a Director of both the Lions and Rotary Clubs in La Grange, Texas, and a Science Advisor for the Fayette County (Texas) Science Fair. He received the 2019 Most Valued Citizen Award from the La Grange Area Chamber of Commerce “for outstanding involvement in the betterment of the community and its people”.
As CEO of AlgEternal he restructured the company into a vertically integrated producer of algae-based products, leveraging their patented algae-growth technology. Focused on harnessing microalgae to generate revenue while solving significant environmental challenges, David launched two microalgae-based products made from microalgae grown by AlgEternal. David believes that entrepreneurship, ecocentrism, and education are keys to widespread adoption of the sustainable algae economic platform for regenerative environmental, social, and economic benefits.
David views algae and their applications as a natural successor to fossil hydrocarbons, sustainably providing products and critical ecosystem services and supporting the transition to a regenerative, circular economy. David posits that harnessing the power of algae represents a viable opportunity for humans to ensure that Earth remains hospitable to us thereby saving our place on the planet.