Rasmus Hundsbæk Pedersen

Primary research areas

Rasmus H. Pedersen works on energy and natural resource investments in sub-Saharan Africa with a focus on politics and governance. He currently researches the political economy of energy transitions that involves work on renewable energy as well as on the enduring role of oil and gas.

Rasmus Hundsbæk Pedersen is PI on the research project ‘Energy struggles – renewable energy in Africa’, which aims to explain how renewable energy is prioritized in different countries. The project is carried out with partners in Tanzania, Ghana and Denmark.

Pedersen has worked on, and maintains an interest in, several other research topics, for instance, petroleum sector governance and social investment standards, land rights and land reform, tree-planting and timber production, social protection and pension reform, and democracy and democratization.

Selected projects

Energy struggles - renewable energy in Africa. A research project on the political economy of energy transitions in sub-Saharan Africa https://www.diis.dk/en/projects/energy-struggles-renewable-energy-in-africa (2021-2025)

The political economy of gas investments in Tanzania. Research as part of the larger research programme, 'Hierarchies of rights: land and natural resource investments in Africa' (2015-2020)

The politics of governing oil and gas in sub-Saharan Africa: Tanzania. A study is part of a research programme under the Effective States and Inclusive Development (ESID) Research Centre (2018-20).

Access, Decentralisation and Local Governance of Land in Africa. The Implementation of Tanzania’s New Wave Land Reform. PhD project and thesis (2009-13).