The IEA said in an excerpt of its 2010 World Energy Outlook that some 1.2 billion people, equivalent to China’s population, would still have no electricity by 2030 if governments made no change to existing policies, down from 1.4 billion currently. The $36 billion per year only represented 3 percent of global energy investments projected by the agency to 2030.
Back in January the World Bank set out on a “listening tour” to ask people what they thought should be included in the Bank’s Energy Strategy, which is set to be released next year.
Now, six months and 1,700 comments later, the people have spoken and the results are probably raising more than a few eyebrows inside the World Bank.
First the good news: Jeffrey Sachs Charts the Way Forward for MDGs Ahead of UN Summit World-renowned economist calls on leaders to arrive at the New York meeting next month “with the agreed plans, partnerships, and financing to accelerate our progress.” Professor Jeffrey Sachs has outlined eight “major gaps” which need to be overcome if the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are to be achieved. These unmet objectives are in smallholder agriculture, education, water and sanitation, health, climate financing, empowering girls and women, infrastructure, and strategies and goals at the local level. His comments come ahead of the MDG summit, taking … Continue reading
OPINION
How much does energy poverty cost?
How much is lost in productivity by societies dependent on traditional biomass fuel?
What is the monetary value of global deforestation for biomass fuel use?
What is the cost (in CO2-equivalent) of the volumes of black carbon being pumped into the atmosphere?
What percentage of national budgets go to treat illnesses attributable to indoor air pollution from inefficient biomass combustion?
How much potential income is lost from the estimated 1,500,000 people who die annually as a consequence of exposure to indoor air pollution?
What will it take to tip the scale in favor of a global crash program to swap out three-stones-and-a-pot for energy-efficient stoves, kilns, and sustainable alternative biofuels?
Will Haiti be to bioenergy what Katrina was to climate change?
How long before Al Gore, Angelina, or Bono take on bionergy as the next big inconvenient truth? The Charcoal Project’s intelligence services tell us there is already a film in the works. Will Bono embrace the rocket stove onstage to his fan’s delight?
Perhaps it will be the lure of a multi-billion dollar global market in carbon offsets from stoves, kilns, and briquettes programs that will do the trick. Or maybe it will be the on-the-ground realities of implementing REDD that will undo the Gordian knot.
And the point is…?
Actually, there are four points and they boil down to this: Continue reading