9 September 2010: The World Bank announced the appointment of Daniel M. Kammen as the organization’s Chief Technical Specialist for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, a new position created to provide strategic leadership on this topic within the Bank.

The appointment responds to demand from developing countries for World Bank support in their efforts to address development and climate change as interlinked challenges. This includes responding to the challenges in providing energy services to the one-and-a-half billion people who remain without access to clean, reliable and affordable modern energy services.

Kammen is the founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL), Co-Director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment, and Director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center. Currently, Kammen is the Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley, US, where he holds appointments in the Energy and Resources Group, the Goldman School of Public Policy, and the department of Nuclear Engineering. The focus of his work is on the science and policy of clean, renewable energy systems, energy efficiency, the role of energy in national energy policy, international climate debates, and the use and impacts of energy sources and technologies on development, particularly in Africa and Latin America. His appointment will be effective on 4 October 2010. [World Bank Press Release]