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Student Spotlight: Fritz Kahrl
Student Spotlight Directory
ERG PhD candidate, Fritz Kahrl.
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"Pathways for Climate Policy in China"
Fredrich (Fritz) Kahrl came to ERG in search of the improbable: A well-respected graduate program that combined academic rigor, the ordered chaos of an interdisciplinary course of study, and a focus on policy and real world problems. ERG proved to be that rare habitat, and continues to exceed expectations. Fritz completed a Master’s degree in ERG in 2007 and, despite swearing that he would never do a PhD, is now in (and thoroughly enjoying) his third year of the ERG PhD program.
Fritz’s dissertation research focuses on the potential for reducing net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in rural China. Despite its newfound status as the world’s largest GHG emitter, China is still a predominantly rural, poor country. China’s climate policy will take shape at the same time the country undergoes a socioeconomic transition whose scale and speed are unparalleled in human history, involving fundamental transformations of the country’s energy, food, health, and water systems. To ensure political sustainability, China’s efforts to reduce net GHG emissions need to be integrated with existing policy priorities.
PHOTO/SU YUFANG,
WORLD AGROFORESTRY CENTRE
Farm landscape in Yunnan Province, typical of Southwest China.
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PHOTO/SU YUFANG,
WORLD AGROFORESTRY CENTRE
Cooking pig feed: A major use of energy in many areas of rural Southwest China. |
Rural climate initiatives — programs or projects in agriculture, forestry, and rural energy that reduce net GHG emissions — have the potential to address a number of China’s pressing policy challenges, including those for rural development, rural energy, public health, food security, environmental conservation, and climate adaptation. Through public sector programs and domestic and international carbon markets, rural climate initiatives could provide an important mechanism to transfer resources to rural areas in China. Focusing on southwest China, Fritz’s dissertation work identifies major sources of and sinks for, and the costs, benefits, and uncertainties associated with net reductions in, GHG emissions in the integrated farming-livestock-forestry-energy systems commonly found in rural China. His research is part of ajoint project between the Chinese Academy of Sciences and World Agroforestry Centre, funded by the European Union’s Aid Cooperation Office.
On the side, Fritz has been active in research on energy and climate policy in China, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the U.S. He has worked extensively with Professor David Roland-Holst, from the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, on the economic impacts of energy and climate policy in California and the broader U.S. Currently, Fritz is part of a team of analysts at Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc. (E3) providing guidance to the Chinese government on strategies to model GHG emission reductions in the power sector. Fritz has also led or contributed to studies on the economics of agricultural carbon sequestration in Sub-Saharan Africa, climate risk and response in California, energy use and structural change in the Chinese economy, and the economic and environmental implications of biodiesel in China and California.
Prior to joining ERG, Fritz spent just under a year in Viet Nam on a Fulbright grant studying bilateral relations between China and Viet Nam, during which time he had the wonderful experience of teaching at Viet Nam National University in Ha Noi. He also worked for the World Agroforestry Centre’s China office in Yunnan Province, in the Institutions and Governance Program at the World Resources Institute, and as an intern at a talk show at China Central Television. Fritz received a BA in philosophy from the College of William and Mary.
8/25/09
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