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 a few eyebrows inside the Bank.
In essence, the synthesis of the comments suggests more attention needs to be paid to solid biomass fuels and energy efficient technologies.
We’ve chosen to zero-in on the issues that are most relevant to those engaged in The Charcoal Project’s mission. You can read the full report here.
1. Priorities and areas of engagement for the World Bank Group
The proposed twin objectives—improving access and reliability of energy supply and facilitating the shift to more environmentally sustainable energy development—are appropriate but need some qualifications.
“Energy” in the first objective should include both electricity and fuels. Particularly important is the access of households to clean cooking and heating solutions.
Include “affordable” in addition to reliable in the first objective. The affordability criterion will help ensure that “clean” but expensive solutions are not imposed on developing countries, and especially in extending access to the poor.
Environmental sustainability should continue to include local and regional environmental concerns, and should not be solely or even primarily about greenhouse gas emissions.
Access of public service providers (clinics, schools, street lighting) to electricity is also important. Access to energy is fundamental to achieving the Millennium Development Goals in education and health.
Add a third objective in the form of combating vulnerability and improving resilience to price volatility, supply disruptions, resource depletion, and climate change.
Tackle access to modern household fuels more.
The approach paper focuses too much on the power sector at the expense of other forms of energy. The paper might be better described as a proposed power sector strategy in middle-income countries under global carbon constraints.
Although the number of people who lack access to electricity remains alarmingly high, nearly twice as many people continue to rely on traditional solid fuels for cooking and heating, with serious health and environmental consequences. Access to clean cooking and heating solutions is important for empowering women. Reducing time spent on fuelwood collection frees up a significant amount of time that can be spent on more productive activities, and can also increase school attendance by children.
Promote biogas as a clean, renewable household energy.
Promote sustainable production of woodfuels (firewood and charcoal) and more-efficient, less-polluting biomass cookstoves. Solid fuels are here to stay because many households will continue to lack the cash needed to switch to a gaseous fuel or electricity for cooking and heating. Help them by ensuring that biomass is sustainably harvested and by contributing to the development and dissemination of improved biomass cookstoves.
Promote fuel switching to liquefied petroleum gas. Do not adopt the black-and-white position that fossil fuels are bad and renewable energy is good under all circumstances. In the extreme, even if 2 billion households were suddenly to switch from biomass to liquefied petroleum gas today, the net increase in greenhouse gas emissions globally would be very small, while health and gender benefits would be considerable.
Include interlinkages to other sectors that are large consumers of energy or suppliers of energy sources with a view to greening their development.
Given that hundreds of millions of households in developing countries will continue to rely on biomass for the foreseeable future, sustainable production and harvesting of wood for household use and charcoal production, and energy-efficient production of charcoal are both critical. The energy sector and forestry sector need to work closely together
Asking the poor to spend a higher proportion of their income on energy consumption without increasing their cash-earning ability is unlikely to be sustainable in many circumstances. One way of increasing affordability is to integrate the poor in energy solutions, such as by making them producers of energy. Another is to promote productive uses of energy for income generation.
Be more selective. Fossil fuel projects are more financially viable than many low-carbon projects. As such, there is no compelling case for the WBG’s involvement in fossil fuel projects. Where the WBG’s involvement is really needed is financing energy sources and technologies that are not yet commercially competitive with traditional energy sources, or where the business case is weak and project preparation and implementation difficult, such as extending access to the rural poor.
Promote use of domestic energy sources. Using domestically-grown feedstocks or biomass residues to produce biofuels enables substitution of imported fuels while spurring rural development. Africa in particular can benefit by promoting production and possibly export of biofuels to Europe.
2. Balancing energy sector development with climate change mitigation
The pursuit of synergies should be given high priority. There is enormous unexploited potential for increasing energy efficiency. Energy efficiency should be maximized across the supply chain and in consumption. Reducing the amount and costs of energy consumed is beneficial under all circumstances, but especially for the poor who are cash-constrained, and efficiency improvement can increase the affordability of modern energy services.
For most or all of the poor, small-scale, off-grid renewable energy can most economically extend access to electricity. Low or zero-carbon solutions exist in abundance and are affordable. The poor live in rural areas where extending the grid or delivering petroleum fuels is prohibitively costly. Solar home systems, solar water heaters, biogas, wind, and pica- and micro-hydropower are less costly and affordable. Off-the-shelf technologies are ready for the market and can meet the needs today.
3. Defining the strategy—how to achieve the objectives
Set specific and ambitious targets for the twin objectives. Set targets for the numbers of households with access to electricity and to cleaner fuels for cooking and heating.
Set increasingly stringent portfolio-based targets for mitigation. Suggestions include (a) 80 percent of the energy portfolio for renewable energy and energy efficiency by 2015, (b) 50 percent renewable energy by 2015 and 70 percent by 2020, (c) increasing lending for renewable energy and energy efficiency by 40 percent each annually, and/or (d) a declining share of lending for fossil fuels.
Base targets on outcomes, not inputs.
Do much more to make household fuel use cleaner and more convenient.
Consider improved stoves initiatives.
Work on sustainable agro-forestry for production of woodfuels.
Promote biogas.
Our view
We think it’s commendable that the WBG has chosen to open up their process to include the voices of all stakeholders. However, as the caveat1 issued by the World Bank shows, there is no guarantee that the recommendations made by stakeholders will be reflected in the World Bank’s final Energy Strategy. We’ll just have to wait and see…
1 This summary is intended as a reflection of what has been presented, without predetermining the content of the strategy itself. Throughout the consultations, it was evident that there are widely diverging views on the challenges, priorities, and tradeoffs in the energy sector, and on the appropriate role, policy stance, and interventions by the World Bank Group. It was emphasized throughout that the purpose of the consultations was not to attempt to develop a strategy that would meet with approval from all parties, but rather to ensure that the Bank Group’s senior management and Board of Executive Directors have a full appreciation of the variety of views and choices that have been made in developing the draft strategy.
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