We have good reasons to believe the age of enlightened energy awaits us around the corner, right? Not so fast. It will be a long while before every thatched or corrugated tin roof on the globe has a photovoltaic array or a wind turbine. In the meantime, the plight of the energy poor – the 2.5 billion souls who depend on wood, charcoal, and animal dung for heating and cooking – will continue to deteriorate as they watch their environment, health, and prospects for emerging from poverty grow worse by the day. They are predictably scattered across the globe, but Continue reading
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The latest from Copenhagen
I thought it useful to share some links to ongoing coverage of negotiations in Copenhagen. We are especially interested in green tech and clean fuels for the energy poor, of course, but REDD is also on our mind, so if you have any information you’d like to share, don’t hesitate to submit it! I’d also like to apologize in advance for the US-centric nature of these suggestions. I’ll be adding more international coverage later! Links: The NYT has several good blogs to turn to. Climate Change Conversations , Dot Earth (Enviro reporter Andy Revkin’s blog), and The Times Topic on Continue reading
A sobering, graphic view of the world's energy poor in 2030 as seen by the IEA
In the spirit of the energy reconversion that half the world is about to undergo in the next decade or so, I thought it appropriate to post some of the sobering slides produced by the International Energy Agency which suggest a completely different perspective for the world’s energy poor. The takeaways are that (1) the number of people who will be denied electricity access and who will rely mostly on biomass to meet their energy needs will grow in the future and, (2) this great disparity will continue to be most evident between rural and urban zones. Per Capita Energy Continue reading
Stove project in Congo selling carbon credits on voluntary market
A December 3rd article in the Financial Times reports how a Mercy Corps-operated stove project in Goma (eastern Congo) is selling carbon offsets to western companies on the voluntary market. It is partially reproduced below but you can only read the complete article on the FT site. Among the more interesting facts reported are: * Projects like these are attractive to private investors in the the voluntary carbon market (as opposed to CDM) because the provide a social benefit as well as an environmental one. More bang for your buck, so to speak. * A project on this scale does Continue reading
Teutonic-Zambian union yields CDM stove project
And now for a heart warming project from Zambia. What is there not to like about this story? It’s got a CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) component, a complex partnership involving German engineers at a powerful utility and local Zambian church groups. And at the center of it is a nifty little stove with amazing tech specs. If indeed this works out, let’s hope we see more projects like this sprouting elsewhere. Is there anyone on the ground who can tell us how meaningful this all this? Hello? Lusaka? hello…? The stove in question, the Save80 cooking system, is well documented Continue reading