Category Archives: International Development

posts

VIDEO: The Business of Charcoal in Dar es Salaam, TZ.


This is the trailer to a short documentary on the charcoal sector in Africa portraying the specific example of the city of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania. The film was published jointly by the World Bank and the Government of Tanzania in August 2009.

We featured the longer version of this film in a post back in August.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

NEWS: World lacks enough food, fuel as population soars-UN


LONDON, Jan 30 (Reuters) – The world is running out of time to make sure there is enough food, water and energy to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and to avoid sending up to 3 billion people into poverty, a U.N. report warned on Monday.

As the world’s population looks set to grow to nearly 9 billion by 2040 from 7 billion now, and the number of middle-class consumers increases by 3 billion over the next 20 years, the demand for resources will rise exponentially.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

PHOTO ESSAY: How Manila’s slum-dwellers eek out a charcoal living


This being the UN-declared Year of Sustainable Energy for All, we hope policy-makers and all those pushing for clean fuels in the developing world will look into the eyes of this little girl and remember that solar and wind are not the only solutions. The world needs clean charcoal, too.

Continue reading

1 Comment

NEWS: U.N. SG: ‘Clean Energy Revolution’ Crucial to Ensure Growth in Poorer Countries


Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called today for a “clean energy revolution” to help the estimated three billion people that lack modern power and urged countries to recognize the impact that energy security has on all aspects of development.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

The black sheep in Africa’s renewable energy family


Absent in the majority of the speeches we heard at last week’s summit of African Energy Ministers in Johannesburg were references to biomass, either as a renewable fuel with the potential to deliver significant energy for economic growth, or for its contribution to sub-Saharan Africa’s energy balance.

Continue reading

6 Comments