About Alejandro Litovsky

Alejandro Litovsky is a senior advisor to Accountabilty.

Articles by Alejandro Litovsky

The accountability challenge for climate diplomacy

Alejandro Litovsky

The world's attention is turning to Bali, Indonesia, for the United Nations climate-change summit on 3-14 December 2007. On the eve of the event, the prospects for an effective climate deal beyond 2012 look uncertain.

Also on openDemocracy, in partnership with E3G: a new blog - Global Deal - tracks the policy debates and arguments at the Bali climate-change conference on 3-14 December 2007.

Read and respond to David Steven's vivid daily reports and commentary here

Also in openDemocracy on the Bali conference:

Camilla Toulmin, "Bali: no time to lose" (30 November 2007)

Paul Rogers, "Climate change: a window to act " (22 November 2007)

Energy poverty and political vision

Alejandro Litovsky

Around 2.64 billion people, 40% of the world's population, lack modern fuels for cooking and heating. 1.6 billion have no access to electricity, three-quarters of them living in rural areas. As decision-makers in Europe and north America wonder how to reduce energy consumption, massive regions of the developing world remain literally in the dark. Populations in the energy-poverty trap - covering vast areas of south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa - are nowhere likely to influence the accountability of the energy policies of their governments.

Alejandro Litovsky's article reflects on the Club of Madrid workshop, in association with AccountAbility, on Energy and Democratic Leadership: Promoting Access to Energy for Poverty Reduction, held in Santander, Spain on 20-21 August 2007At a high-level workshop on Energy and Democratic Leadership: Promoting Access to Energy for Poverty Reduction in Santander, Spain on 20-21 August 2007, the debate on this global energy poverty took a welcome turn towards politics. The event brought together an unusual crowd to discuss the solutions: energy-poverty experts from international agencies, civil society and energy businesses were joined by former political leaders (Mary Robinson, Jimmy Carter, Sadig al-Mahdi and other members of the Club of Madrid among them) to attempt to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Europe and Russia: the accountability test

Alejandro Litovsky

By 2030, over 60% of European gas imports are expected to come from Russia. This creates a strong economic interdependency that is, however, today surrounded by security threats and political mistrust. Much of this tension was on display at the summit between the leaders of Russia and the European Union in Samara on 18 May 2007. Some of it might be dispelled if these leaders - and the media which tracks their every move - paid attention to the issues addressed at another current international gathering: the seventh world assembly of the global non-governmental organisation Civicus in Glasgow on 23-27 May. There, almost 1,000 civil-society organisations will discuss how civil society can improve accountability.

This week's guest editors

Our guest editors James Ron, Leslie Vinjamuri, Sophie Arie and Archana Pandya introduce this week's theme of:

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Europe from the bottom up

A new Europe can only come from the bottom up
Etienne Balibar

Mali: the plot thickens

Remote control war

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About Alejandro Litovsky

Articles by Alejandro Litovsky

The accountability challenge for climate diplomacy

Energy poverty and political vision