Too many of the worlds poor still lack access to electricity, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said Monday as he urged more investment in sustainable sources of energy in developing countries, reports the World Bank press review.
In a speech launching the World Banks Energy Week, the lenders President said concern about soaring world demand for energy over the next 30 years should not obscure the huge numbers of the worlds poor without power.
– Current forecasts are that 30 years from now there will still be 1,4 billion people without electricity and there will still be many businesses, which lack sufficient and reliable energy services that could be providing jobs for the poor. That is just not satisfactory; we have to do better, Wolfowitz said.
He added that a lack of energy affected basic human needs like education and disease prevention, and governments, development agencies and experts should focus on sustainable energy development to alleviate world poverty.
Wolfowitz further said meeting energy needs without degrading the local environment was critical. Environmental damage from traditional sources of energy and the resulting impact on health care, crops and overall resource depletion can cost some developing countries up to six percent of GDP, he said.
Underserved populations need a shift from energy sources like wood and raw coal to more efficient and cleaner technologies.
– Currently some 2,6 billion people rely on traditional fuels for cooking because they lack access to modern fuel. That is a health problem, he said, citing estimates that 1,6 million deaths a year are linked to ailments (lidelser) associated with smoke from solid fuels burned while cooking indoors.
Wolfowitz cited forecasts of a 60 percent rise in energy demand between 2002 and 2030 and said that while two-thirds of that surge is projected to come from developing countries, some 1,6 billion people – mostly in rural Africa and South Asia – still have no power.
Wolfowitz also said that developing nations and economies in transition need to invest 300 billion US dollar per year in order to satisfy their energy demands. But he said that corruption continues to be a serious problem in some regions although it was “impossible to calculate” damages that it causes noting that it discourages investors.
It is feared that corruption could delay the execution of projects and increase costs by as much as 20 percent.
Wolfowitz announced that the World Bank Board will discuss the implantation of what he called a new “vehicle for the financing of clean energy.” The new instrument will combine subsidies to poor countries with the trade in carbon emissions, and help fulfill the Kyoto objectives.
World Bank sources indicated that many developing countries still lack a carbon emission market, something that the Bank will try to assist in starting.
The US, which has rejected the Kyoto agreement against global warming, argues that developing countries must be brought on board if international efforts to limit rising temperatures are to be meaningful.
But Robert Socolow, a professor at Princeton Universitys Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, said there was no contradiction between encouraging development and fighting global warming.
– This is certainly not the case that bringing energy for basic human needs to the very poor will increase carbon dioxide emissions. Cooking fuel in rural areas is a catastrophe and could be replaced by propane or DME (Dimethyl ether) produced from biomass, he explained.
On a related topic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil, writes in an op-ed published The Guardian that in the search for new, sustainable economic models, the international community is coming to recognize the need for a radical rethink in relation to the generation of energy, and Brazil is responding by using clean, renewable, alternative energy sources to an ever-greater extent.
More than 40 percent of Brazils energy comes from “green” sources, in comparison with around seven percent in rich countries. The ethanol Brazil produces from sugar cane is attracting worldwide interest, for it is one of the cheapest and most dependable types of fuel derived from renewable sources.
Three-quarters of the cars now being produced in Brazil have “flex-fuel” engines, capable of running on either ethanol or petrol, or any mixture of the two.
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