Forgot Password?
Home arrow GreeniacsArticles arrow Energy arrow Energy in Developing Countries
Written by Gregory Iwahashi   
Share |
Tuesday, 18 October 2011

Energy in Developing Countries
Energy is one of the most important issues around the world, and has been particularly important in developing countries.1 The World Bank categorizes developing countries as those “with low or middle levels of GNP [Gross National Product] per capita.”2 Developing nations are usually marked by their industrialization and economic growth, with two of the more prominent examples being China and India.3

Why are Developing Nations Important to Climate Change?

In the next 20 years the growth of global energy demand will rise by 40% due to population growth and industrialization. Currently, over 1.6 billion people worldwide are without electricity, the majority of them living in developing nations.4 An even greater cause for concern is the lack of energy efficient technologies available in these countries. As the energy demands of these nations increase, the need for efficient energy usage will be paramount to the success of climate change mitigation in these nations and the rest of the world. Let’s look at how energy is currently used in the developing world and what the future holds.

Biomass

 Currently, three billion people rely on traditional biomass—animal waste, agricultural waste, fuelwood, and charcoal—for cooking, heating, and basic household energy needs. This accounts for 7% of worldwide energy demand.5 Additionally, 500 million urban dwellers still use biomass as an energy source because of its cheaper cost compared to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). While 7% seems like an insignificant number, it will grow as the population grows and the price of LPG or other alternatives increases. Furthermore, burning biomass utilizes low efficiency technologies that waste the majority of the energy produced. This means that it may take as much as three or four times the amount of wood to heat a home or cook dinner than the energy alternative. After all the burning is done, countless amounts of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere adding to the climate change Greeniacs Articles issue Earth is currently facing.

Biogas Plant
 Biogas Plant in India
UN photo


Perhaps even more troubling is the fact that while biomass may be a cheap and readily available resource, it has hazardous health effects and lifetime costs. Every year 1.3 million people die from indoor health related diseases, and many others suffer from respiratory illnesses such as asthma and lung disease.6 Cleaner fuel alternatives such as LPG and natural gas Greeniacs Articles release much lower amounts of particulates into the air, even though of course these carbon emissions need to be lowered across the board in order to combat climate change, air pollution, and water pollution.

Biomass reliance also affects the development and lifestyle of people living in developing economies. In order for a society to become developed both socially and economically, energy must be made readily available. One of the biggest challenges in developing nations is access to electricity. Without a central grid, biomass and LPG are the only sources of energy for everyday life. Furthermore, LPG and higher density fuel options are expensive and essentially unaffordable. As a result, many children and women spend a vast majority of their time gathering enough fuel to cook meals and heat their homes. This huge time commitment stifles the education, productivity, and economic growth of these nations by creating a dependency on an inefficient and labor-intensive energy source.7

Global Initiatives

The United Nations has created a series of millennium development goals that are to increase the sustainability and decrease poverty of developing nations.8 Recognizing energy as a key to sustaining the social, economic, and environmental infrastructure of these developing countries, the UN secretary recently named 2012 as the year for sustainable energy.9 As part of the millennium development goals, the UN has directed over 135 offices worldwide to work on integrating the focuses of “climate change, biodiversity, energy, water, drylands, chemical, and ozone” into the framework of developing nations.10 This is a lofty directive, but the focus on energy and climate change in developing nations is a big step in the right direction.

On a larger scale, the Copenhagen climate change conference Greeniacs Articles has picked up where the Kyoto Protocols Greeniacs Articles have left off, prompting numerous nations to take matters into their own hands.11 China, India, and Brazil have made some the biggest moves with renewable energy investments, reaching a record high $211 billion in 2010.12 In conjunction with new energy policies, these countries have made a push towards cleaner energy production and more economically feasible renewable fuel sources Greeniacs Articles. Similar, in Africa, numerous nations have banded together to create the African Renewable Energy Alliance to speed up electrification and climate change mitigation efforts. In Jordan, Indonesia, and Ethiopia, despite policies not being set in stone, renewable energy projects are popping up in the form of solar and wind plants.13 However, poorer countries have steered away from such high cost projects and restrictive environmental policies in fear of what the impacts on lifestyle, forestry, and food security may be.14


Fuelwood as a percentage of energy consumption in Africa’s developing nations. 15


With deforestation Greeniacs Articles accounting for 20% of global carbon emissions, a transition from biomass to cleaner and more accessible energy is vital to the success of climate change mitigation. No winning strategy or technology has yet been created to solve the problem of energy demand and usage. However, there are steps that are currently being taken to begin answering these questions. These involve technology, accessibility, and finance, so let’s take a look at what’s being done in these arenas.

Technological advancements: Obtaining the necessary technology and creating an energy efficient grid is the most basic starting point. Creating an electrical grid will establish a network of energy transport, making energy available for individuals. Furthermore, it will promote the integration and growth of cleaner technologies such as centralized power plants, solar, wind, and other renewable energy generation. In this same category is the concept of energy efficiency. Increasing the efficiency of say, cooking stoves, or the insulating ability of a home will save energy in the long run. Along these lines, alternative cooking methods such as solar ovens Greeniacs Guides, water heating methods, and refrigeration techniques Greeniacs Guides will save additional energy and money.

Accessibility: Making energy-efficient technologies and products available to developing nations is a major piece of the sustainability puzzle. Many times there the barriers to getting these technologies to developing nations due to patent restrictions, high costs, and functionality—I would imagine CFL energy-saving bulb Greeniacs Articles wouldn’t be much help to a home with no electricity.16 The UN along with many governments in the developing world are working to make these options more available by creating partnerships and policies focused on bringing energy-efficient technologies where they are needed most. Furthermore, non-government related organizations (NGOs) are stepping up their volunteer efforts to provide the manpower and money to bridge the divide between the developed and non-developed world.

Finance: The biggest challenge is answering the question: I know what must be done, but how can I afford it? One great way countries and organizations are responding to this very question is through microfinance Greeniacs Articles. Lending organizations are giving out small loans to businesses and homeowners to invest in modern fuel technologies.17 Even if the country does not have the generous tax credit incentives that the United States does, organizations are sponsoring individuals encouraging them to buy more new cook stoves that are up to 43% more efficient than their predecessors.18 If developing countries can begin implementing strategies to bring these energy-efficient technologies to its citizens, modern fuel technology has a chance of becoming an integral infrastructure component, adding to a cleaner-energy world to come.

Browse all Greeniacs Articles Browse all Greeniacs Guides        Browse all Greeniacs Articles
_______________________________________________________________________________

1 http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=5036
2 http://www.worldbank.org/depweb/english/beyond/global/glossary.html
3 http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/third_world_countries.htm
4 http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=5036
5 http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/docs/weo2006/cooking.pdf
6 Id.
7 Id.
8 http://www.undp.org/energy/
9 http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=5036
10 http://www.undp.org/environment/index.shtml
11 http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/
     2010/03/developing-nations-eye-renewable-energy
12 http://www.theclimategroup.org/our-news/news/2011/7/13/
     brazil-china-india-leading-in-clean-energy-investment-world-record/
13 http://www.undp.org/environment/index.shtml
14 http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2010/03/
     developing-nations-eye-renewable-energy
15 http://solarcooking.org/fuelwood.htm
16 http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/docs/weo2006/cooking.pdf
17 Id.
18 http://www.energycommunity.org/documents/FuelingDevelopment.PDF




Add your comment
RSS comments

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Click here to Register.  Click here to login.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 19 October 2011 )

SEARCH GREENIACS.COM

Green Facts

  • Recycling 100 million cell phones can save enough energy to power 18,500 homes in the U.S. for a year.

  • 82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from burning fossil fuels.

  • Turning off the tap when brushing your teeth can save as much as 10 gallons a day per person.

  • You will save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive if you always keep your car’s tires fully inflated.

  • Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch.

  • Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.

  • An aluminum can that is thrown away instead of recycled will still be a can 500 years from now!

  • If every U.S. household turned the thermostat down by 10 degrees for seven hours each night during the cold months, and seven hours each weekday, it would prevent nearly gas emissions.

  • Refrigerators built in 1975 used 4 times more energy than current models.

  • It takes 6,000,000 trees to make 1 year's worth of tissues for the world.

  • A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.

  • Current sea ice levels are at least 47% lower than they were in 1979.

  • You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.

  • A tree that provides a home with shade from the sun can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.

  • A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining wastes by about 70%.

  • Bamboo absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than equivalent stands of trees.

  • In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walk or bike and you'll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.

  • States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.

  • Due to tiger poaching, habitat destruction, and other human-tiger conflicts, tigers now number around 3,200—a decrease in population by about 70% from 100 years ago.

  • Less than 1% of electricity in the United States is generated from solar power.

  • The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million people die prematurely worldwide every year due to air pollution.

  • Recycling 1 million laptop computers can save the amount of energy used by 3,657 homes in the U.S. over the course of a year.

  • Shaving 10 miles off of your weekly driving pattern can eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

  • A laptop consumes five times less electricity than a desktop computer.

  • Washing your clothes in cold or warm instead of hot water saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, and drying your clothes on a clothesline six months out of the year would save another 700 pounds.

  • Nudge your thermostat up two degrees in the summer and down two degrees in the winter to prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

  • American workers spend an average of 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic. This adds up to 23 billion gallons of gas wasted in traffic each year.

  • Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.

  • 77% of people who commute to work by car drive alone.

  • Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute.

  • Glass can be recycled over and over again without ever wearing down.

  • For every 38,000 bills consumers pay online instead of by mail, 5,058 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided and two tons of trees are preserved.

  • Recycling for one year at Stanford University saved the equivalent of 33,913 trees and the need for 636 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone.

  • Every week about 20 species of plants and animals become extinct.

  • Americans throw away more than 120 million cell phones each year, which contribute 60,000 tons of waste to landfills annually.

  • In California homes, about 10% of energy usage is related to TVs, DVRs, cable and satellite boxes, and DVD players.

  • You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL), over the life of the bulb.

  • Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months

  • One recycled aluminum can will save enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.