EfD Research Director, Dr. Yonas Alem represented the EfD initiative at the International Growth Center’s Energy and Growth conference held in London, Nov 12-13, 2015. The conference brought academics, policymakers and other stakeholders working on energy issues including rural electrification, improving grid services and power sector reform, externalities of electrification and energy efficiency and renewable energy sources in developing countries. Dr. Alem took part as a panelist and moderator in the session “externalities of electrification” together with Prof. Rohini Pande (Harvard University), Prof. Abu Bakar Bahaj (University of Southampton), Dr. Manuel Barron (Universidad del Pacífico), and Dr. Koichiro Ito (University of Chicago). The panel discussed important issues related to the environmental, health, and other consequences of the current pattern of energy use in the world, and about the possibilities for following a greener development path for the current developing countries. Dr. Alem shared the Ethiopian Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) initiative with the audience , which is an ambitious strategy Ethiopia designed to achieve a middle income status by 2025 without increasing the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted from the economy from the current level.