Asimple vista no parece un científico dedicado a las energías renovables. Su sencillez y sonrisa tampoco delatan la trascendencia de su trabajo. Pero Daniel M. Kammen recibió el Premio Nobel de la Paz en el 2007, por su trabajo contra los efectos del cambio climático.

“Solo son dos personas que van a Estocolmo para recibir el premio, yo solo era uno de miles que lo recibieron”, se adelanta para aclarar. Aún así, es asesor del gobierno de los Estados Unidos y del Banco Mundial en temas relacionados con el calentamiento global, y el primer disertante en energía limpia de la Alianza de Energía y Clima para las Américas (AECA).

Antes de la conferencia magistral que dictará en Managua, recibió a LA PRENSA para hablar un poco de su visita y la lucha contra los efectos del cambio climático.

Along India's narrow coastal belt of Mundra in Gujarat State, 500 miles (805 kilometers) northwest of Mumbai, several coal-fired power plants generate electricity so cheaply that authorities for the most part have overlooked damage to fishing and grazing, and harm to the vulnerable mangrove ecosystem.

It is here that Tata, India's giant conglomerate and largest private electric utility, has been building what it hopes will be one of the largest coal power plants in the world, the 4,000-megawatt Tata Mundra. It is one of nine such "ultra-mega" plants being built across India.

Launched in 2010, the Fulbright Regional Network for Applied Research (NEXUS) Program supports U.S. foreign policy initiatives that fight poverty and encourage innovation in market-driven and socially responsible ways while increasing mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Program participants explore public-policy research questions and involve governments, NGOs, businesses, and communities in the implementation of their projects. As Western Hemisphere nations take steps to work together on shared challenges, the Fulbright NEXUS Program offers a collaborative model for regional scholarly exchange that moves beyond theory into practice. Applications are currently being accepted for the 2012-2013 cycle of the program.

A mile up a steep, tree-lined hill sits the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory in Berkeley, California. It’s early morning and Daniel Kammen, RAEL’s director, founder, and one of the world’s foremost experts on renewable energy, has arrived in jeans, sandals and a green T-shirt that reads “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Run.”   

Kammen has to run. To avoid the most drastic effects of climate change, scientists generally agree that the world has only a few decades to stabilize atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentrations at 450 parts-per-million. Meanwhile 1.5 billion people on the globe lack access to electricity. Providing reliable, clean energy to the poor while accelerating green power investments in the developed world is a task for Atlas.