Professional Affiliation

Assistant Professor, International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Expert Bio

Jewellord (Jojo) Nem Singh is an Assistant Professor of International Development at the International Institute of Social Studies, part of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He is also Affiliate Research Fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS). Jojo is the Principal Investigator of a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant for his five-year research project Green Industrial Policy in the Age of Rare Metals: A Trans-regional Comparison of Growth Strategies in Rare Earths Mining (GRIP-ARM). Jojo held two highly prestigious research fellowships, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship Award at the Freie Universitëit Berlin (FUB) in 2017 and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)  at the University of Tokyo in 2016. His most recent publication includes Business of the State: Why State Ownership Matters for Resource Governance (Oxford University Press) and ‘The Politics of Designing and Negotiating Industrial Policy in the 21st Century (Forthcoming, Third World Quarterly). Apart from his academic work, he served as Consultant for various organizations, including UNDP Brussels, UNRISD in Geneva, and Publish What You Pay in London.

Expertise

Energy, environment, governance, international development

Wilson Center Project

Green Industrial Policy in the Age of Rare Metals

Project Summary

This multi-country project examines the globalized supply and demand for rare metals – from mining, processing, manufacturing, use and recycling – to have a closer scrutiny of mining both as a strategy for industrialization and as an integral part of contemporary efforts towards a sustainable supply of raw materials. These critical minerals are urgently needed for decarbonization and shift towards renewable technologies. The research has three key objectives: (1) to empirically document how mineral states design industrial policies that have the potential to link extraction and manufacturing sectors of the economy. It will also explore why similar policies yield varying outcomes; (2) to identify the political factors that successfully built linkages between sectors of the economy, spur technological innovation, and maximize benefits from extractive industries; and (3) to analyse how the geopolitical restructuring has elicited responses from governments and firms in Europe and East Asia to address long-term supply vulnerability and sustainability of resource use. Crucially, the project contributes to a wider public understanding as regards the difficult choices we need to make as we promote a clean energy transition.

Major Publications

1. Developmental States beyond East Asia
2. Mining our way out of the Climate Change conundrum? The Power of a Social Justice Perspective
3. Environmental Governance amidst the Climate Crisis and Energy Transition in the 21st Century