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School for Cross-faculty Studies Global Sustainable Development

Laura Quinteros Nogales

Laura

Contact details

Email: Laura dot Quinteros-Nogales at warwick dot ac dot uk
 Linkedin

Current PhD student

Biography

I am a political economist and a sustainable energy advocate. Currently, I am a first-year PhD student in the Global Sustainable Development Department. My research interests lie in the field of energy transitions and social sciences. In particular, I am interested in the intersections of renewable energy (RE) politics, governance structures, power relations, ecological implications and social justice. As such, my Masters' research project examined the energy justice configurations of the National Policy Framework for rural energy access in Bolivia using critical discourse analysis. Additionally, I developed my qualitative research skills over the course of my undergraduate degree as I had the chance to engage in a great deal of data collection and field work related to water studies at the Economics' research centre. As an energy practitioner, I led a regional initiative in the International Institute for Co-operation in Agriculture (IICA) aiming to enable the financial sector engagement in the rural energy market of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Before engaging in the PhD degree, I conducted project assessment and due diligence tasks in the Project Facilitation and Support Division of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

Academic background

  • PhD in Global Sustainable Development - University of Warwick
  • Masters in Environmental Management - Massey University (New Zealand)
  • PG Cert in Energy for Development - Universidad Catolica San Pablo (Bolivia)
  • PG Cert in Lithium, Geotherm and Biomass - Universidad Catolica San Pablo (Bolivia)
  • BA Economics - Universidad Mayor de San Simon (Bolivia)

Supervisors

Dr Celine Tan- School of Law

Dr Nick Bernards - School for Cross-faculty Studies

Research overview

My doctoral research explores crowdfunding finance schemes emerging as alternative mechanisms to finance renewable energy (RE) transitions. Crowdfunding is the practice of pooling small investments from multiple individuals via online platforms, to fund profit and non-profit initiatives. The literature offers flourishing yet highly contested and inconclusive scholarly research characterising the RE crowdfunding community, the crowdfunding platform and conceptual and empirical governance models to leverage the use of crowdfunding. This research delves into a hitherto unexplored dimension, namely, the socio-ecological configurations and underlying power arrangements emerging from RE crowdfunding. Drawing upon the case study of a solar crowdfunding platform in Colombia, this research aims at gaining a deeper understanding on the effect of alternative finance schemes in the incumbent governance configurations of climate and sustainability transitions.

Research interests

  • Energy transitions
  • Energy justice
  • Renewable energy politics
  • Energy and political Ecology

Workshops and Conferences

  • New Zealand Political Studies Association (12/10/2020).
    2020 Workshop of the Environmental Politics and Policy Network: “Environmental transitions: Politics, governance, discourses.”
    Presentation: “Energy justice for all? Exploring Bolivia’s policy framework for rural energy access.
  • The Aotearoa New Zealand International Development Studies Network (12/03/2020).
    DevNet 2020 “Development Matters”.
    Presentation: Energy access for development: Exploring the discourse underpinning Bolivia’s rural energy policy.

Funding and awards