ocean islands with solar panels in foreground

Global South

Islands Energy Program Recognized with Global Team Leadership Award

Last month, the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) Islands Energy Program received the Global Team Leadership Award from the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). This honor is awarded to a geographically diverse team recognized for making outstanding technical contributions and demonstrating innovative thinking to overcome global…

A Locally Led Move Toward Microgrids in Puerto Rico

The start of this week, September 23, marks the average peak of the Atlantic hurricane season. After the devastating landfall of Hurricane Dorian in the northern Bahamas two weeks ago, the Caribbean community quickly moved to offer support. Relief began mobilizing out of New Providence and Andros Islands, which were…

Combating Climate Change: How Islands Can Go Further Together

This blog post was adapted from a keynote presentation given at the Pacific Power Association Annual Conference and was originally posted on Virgin.com. I was in Rarotonga, the capital of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, in 2010, after the island of Aitutaki—just a few kilometers south of…

How India Is Solving Its Cooling Challenge

Today, 40% of the world’s population resides within the hot tropical regions, where many of whom are exposed to potentially life-threatening temperatures for at least 20 days a year. Approximately 12,000 people die around the world annually due to heatwaves, and as our planet warms, these temperature surges are becoming more…