At two to 10 times above Mongolian and international air quality standards, Ulaanbaatar’s PM rates are among the worst in the world, according to a December 2009 World Bank report. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates that health costs related to this air pollution account for as much as 4 percent of Mongolia’s GDP.
Valuing Biomass
In 2007, Indoor Air Pollution from inefficient biomass combustion cost Peru U$321,123,160
Peru could have bought every rural poor two energy efficient stoves in 2007 for the equivalent of what Indoor Air Pollution cost the country. That would be U$321,123,160 in 2007, in case you were wondering.
As we discussed last week, The Charcoal Project is leading a research on a global analysis that would put a price tag on the inefficient domestic combustion of biomass as practiced today in the vast majority of the developing world.
The figure mentioned above comes from the World Bank’s Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) reports published on their website.
We randomly selected the 2007 assessment for Peru.
Valuing global biomass fuel consumption
We recently announced The Charcoal Project’s intention to help quantify the cost to society of current levels and practices of biomass consumption in the developing world.
Once we discover the direct and indirect costs of “business as usual”, we can then figure out the cost-benefit of pushing for the large-scale adoption of energy efficiency technology and policies.
Starting today you will find a section titled Biomass in Numbers on the right-hand column. Here you will find blurbs and links to information that will help us better understand the true cost of energy poverty.