Towards a Sustainable Energy Future : The World Bank Group's Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Action Plan

The challenge for the development community is to exploit the links between energy and poverty to combat global poverty. The human scale of this challenge is huge. Today, 1.6 billion people lack access to electricity and 2.4 billion rely on traditional biomass for cooking and heating. Indoor air pollution is among leading causes of illness and death in developing countries. It leads to 2 million premature deaths a year. In 2004, the richest 20 percent of the world s population consume 58 percent of total energy, while the poorest 20 percent consume less than 4 percent. The majority of those underserved are the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. With increasing populations, 25 years from now, business-as-usual energy scenarios project that even after an expenditure of 16 trillion US dollars on energy investments of which half will be in developing countries, 1.4 billion people will still lack access to electricity. This is a reduction of only 200 million people from today. Over 2.6 billion people in developing countries will continue to rely on traditional forms of biomass for cooking and heating in 2030, even more than today. This scenario expects renewable energy share to increase from 2 percent to 3 percent between 2000 and 2030. Under this scenario, by 2030, the more than doubling of coal, oil and gas consumption will lead to increases in greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector. The impacts will affect the developing countries the most, and hence rendering the poor more vulnerable. Projected impacts are increased deaths and risk of infectious disease epidemics; increased floods, mudslides and coastal and soil erosion; increased property and infrastructure damage; decreased crops, higher crop damages and a general drop in agricultural productivity.

Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	World Bank
Format:	Economic & Sector Work biblioteca
Language:	English en_US
Published:	Washington, DC 2004-06-30
Subjects:	ACCESS TO ELECTRICITY, AFFORDABLE ENERGY, AIR, AIR POLLUTION, AVAILABILITY, BALANCE, BALANCE OF PAYMENTS, BIOMASS ENERGY, BIOMASS FUELS, CAPACITY BUILDING, CARBON, CARBON EMISSIONS, CARBON FINANCE, CARBON FINANCING, CLEAN ENERGY, CLEAN WATER, CLEANER ENERGY, CLIMATE, CLIMATE CHANGE, CLIMATE CHANGE CONVENTION, CO, COAL, COGENERATION, CONVENTIONAL ENERGY, COOKING, CROPS, ECONOMIC GROWTH, ELECTRICAL POWER, ELECTRICAL POWER GENERATION, ELECTRIFICATION, EMISSIONS REDUCTION, EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS, EMPLOYMENT, ENERGY CHOICES, ENERGY EFFICIENCY, ENERGY EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS, ENERGY EFFICIENCY INVESTMENTS, ENERGY EFFICIENCY MEASURES, ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROJECTS, ENERGY INVESTMENTS, ENERGY NEEDS, ENERGY SCENARIOS, ENERGY SECTOR, ENERGY SECURITY, ENERGY SERVICES, ENERGY SOURCES, ENERGY SUPPLY, ENERGY USE, ENVIRONMENT SECTORS, ENVIRONMENTAL GOALS, ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT, FLOODS, FOSSIL, FOSSIL FUELS, GAS, GAS CONSUMPTION, GEF, GENERATION CAPACITY, GEOTHERMAL ENERGY, GEOTHERMAL PROJECT, GEOTHERMAL PROJECTS, GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT, GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACILITY, GREENHOUSE, GREENHOUSE GAS, GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS, HEAT, HEATING, HOT WATER, HYDROPOWER, INDOOR AIR POLLUTION, INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY, LOCAL ENVIRONMENT, LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT, OIL, PIPELINE, PRICE VOLATILITY, RENEWABLE ENERGIES, RENEWABLE ENERGY, RENEWABLE ENERGY CONFERENCE, RENEWABLE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT, RENEWABLE ENERGY GENERATION, RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECTS, RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES, RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES, RENEWABLES, SOLAR ENERGY, SUGAR MILLS, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, SUSTAINABLE ENERGY, SUSTAINABLE ENERGY FUTURE, SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT, TRADITIONAL BIOMASS, WIND, WIND ENERGY, WORLD ENERGY,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/06/16349535/towards-sustainable-energy-future-world-bank-groups-renewable-energy-energy-efficiency-action-plan http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14894
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