Dr. Natalie Alice Boyd Williams

Weitere Informationen

Research Areas:

• Understanding the success and failure of domestic biogas programs

• Policies supporting domestic biogas initiatives

• Energy justice

• Carbon offsetting through domestic biogas technology

• Assessing the effectiveness, sustainability, and fairness of carbon trading using biogas technology

Natalie Boyd Williams completed her PhD entitled ' Renewable Energy Decentralization in Nepal, India, and the United Kingdom ' at the University of Stirling in October 2023. Her research focused on understanding the factors that influence the success and failure of household transitions to domestic biogas technology in rural Nepal and India. Using a multi-level perspective, she evaluated these programs by examining user decision-making within the broader socio-economic, political, and geographical contexts at both local and national levels.

Much of the existing research on domestic biogas tends to focus on the user domain, often attributing program failures to user decisions or rejections. However, her PhD work highlighted the importance of considering the broader programmatic and contextual factors that drive user decisions. She argues that without accounting for these wider contexts, it is impossible to fully understand the underlying reasons for the failure of domestic biogas transitions.

Natalie advocates for moving away from reductive research and assessments of biogas programs to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the transitions involved. This approach aims to improve the selection of appropriate rural technologies and enhance the design of successful programs.

Her current postdoctoral work extends this focus by assessing the sustainability, effectiveness, and fairness of using domestic biogas programs in low-resource settings as a means of offsetting CO2e emissions in high-resource, high-consumption countries. At this critical juncture of climate change and the intersection of climate and social justice, it is crucial that external bodies, such as universities, rigorously investigate carbon offsetting projects. Such assessments are essential to ensure these initiatives not only effectively reduce carbon emissions but also genuinely contribute to sustainable development and promote social justice.