The City of Cape Town, in partnership with J-PAL Africa and Community Jameel, launched the Water, Air and Energy (WAE) Lab, a collaboration aimed at generating evidence-based solutions to improve clean air, water and reliable energy for Capetonians.
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According to the City, local policymakers and researchers will conduct randomised evaluations and inform the scaling of evidence-based programmes and policies.
‘As we address the current energy crisis and seek to prevent future water crises, we will utilise the City’s innovative data systems and work with researchers to rigorously evaluate and scale policy and technological innovations that will positively impact residents,’ says Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.
The WAE Lab forms part of J-PAL’s Air and Water Labs (AWLs), created with Community Jameel. AWLs partner with government agencies in South Africa, Egypt and India to address air and water challenges via evidence-informed policies.
These policies are used to inform the decisions of city, state and national governments that serve nearly 260 million combined, including nearly five million Capetonians.
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Based on the work of J-PAL’s King Climate Action Initiative with the support of King Philanthropies, Air and Water Labs develops new research and policy approaches.
‘Over the past decade, J-PAL has built long-term strategic partnerships with governments around the world to greatly increase policy-relevant research and its scale up,’ says Iqbal Dhaliwal, global executive Director of J-PAL.
‘Our Africa office has been based in Cape Town since 2010, so I am thrilled that the WAE Lab will build strong collaborations with our host city on their critical policy priorities around water, air, and energy.’
Kelsey Jack, WAE Lab Scientific Advisor; University of California, Santa Barbara, says ensuring access clean air and water and reliable electricity will become ‘increasingly challenging with progressing climate change and growing inequality’.
‘This partnership provides a unique opportunity to support a culture of learning and innovation in government that will lead to better policies and programs for people who need them most.’
The lab will partner researchers with local policymakers to:
- Co-identify the most pressing air, water and energy challenges and opportunities for policy innovation
- Expand access to and use of high-quality air, water, and energy data
- Co-design potential solutions informed by existing evidence, design more targeted policies and use data to monitor progress
- Co-generate evidence on promising solutions through pilots and randomised evaluations and determine which ones should be scaled up
- Provide technical assistance to scale effective air, water, and energy policies and programmes
‘Policymakers hold the key to many clean air and water solutions, and partnerships with researchers are essential to evaluate and refine these solutions for the greatest impact,’ says Uzma Sulaiman, the associate director of Community Jameel.
‘Community Jameel is dedicated to fostering these relationships, building on J-PAL’s decades of experience creating trusted policy partnerships around the world.’
Furthermore, the lab will also collaborate with C40 Cities, a global network of mayors of the world’s leading cities who aim to address the climate crisis.
‘As climate impacts increasingly cut across all sectors and threaten to reverse decades of poverty alleviation, urgent action is needed. J-PAL Africa is eager to partner with decision-makers throughout the continent to inform the development and scaling of policies and programs with evidence,’ says Vinayak Bhardwaj, executive director of J-PAL Africa.
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International support boosts Cape Town’s renewable energy initiatives
Picture: City of Cape Town