Todd Moss is founder and executive director of the Energy for Growth Hub. He is also a nonresident fellow at the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute and the Colorado School of Mines’ Payne Institute. Todd is a widely recognized expert on energy, development finance, and foreign policy who has testified to the U.S. Congress eleven times. His substack is Eat More Electrons.
Previously, Todd served as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, as chief operating officer of the Center for Global Development, and has worked at the London School of Economics, Georgetown University, the World Bank, and the EIU. He is a board member of the New Producers for Sustainable Energy and chairs the global advisory board of the Institute of Economic Affairs in Ghana. Todd is the author of African Development: Making sense of the issues and actors (eds. 2007, 2011, 2018) and Oil to Cash: Fighting the resource curse with cash transfers (2015). He holds a PhD and MSc from the University of London’s SOAS and a BA from Tufts University.
When he’s not thinking about energy abundance, Todd is passionate about immigration reform, democracy in Zimbabwe, and backyard chickens. In the early mornings, Todd writes international political thrillers.
Showing Policy Impact Isn’t Straightforward. Here’s Our Method to the Messiness.
All think tanks face a central quandary: explaining how their work leads to tangible change in the world. It’s a core question for us at the Energy for Growth Hub.
World Bank Ends Its Ban on Funding Nuclear Power Projects
The decision, a major reversal, could help poorer nations industrialize, cut planet-warming emissions and boost U.S. competitiveness on next-generation reactors.
Infographic – Are We Learning the Right Energy Lesson from Mobile Phones? The Energy Iceberg Says No
The mobile phone revolution is allowing countries to skip landlines, prompting many observers to assume countries might also skip building an electricity grid and jump right to distributed home energy systems (e.g., here and here). New disruptive technologies are exciting and alluring, especially in sub-Saharan markets where the unmet infrastructure needs are huge. After all, if you can charge your smartphone with a rooftop solar kit, then who needs power plants and a grid?
Podcast: Todd Moss on Electrifying Africa’s Future
Last month, Todd Moss joined Dan Runde, Director of the Project on Prosperity and Development at CSIS, on his podcast series Building the Future. Todd discussed what led him to launch the Energy for Growth Hub, a new global network connecting research and policymakers to build high-energy systems.
Foreign Affairs: Can Nigeria Solve Its Energy Crisis?
Nigeria is home to one in every five Africans and it has the continent’s largest economy. More than half of Nigerians are under 20 years old. Whether all these bright young people will drive growth or generate instability depends largely on whether Nigeria’s economy can produce jobs for them. And Nigeria won’t be able to create jobs at the required pace until it solves its energy crisis.
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