OPINION How many economists do you know that you can call a rock star or a superhero? In our books, Fatih Birol, Chief Economist at the IEA (International Energy Agency) is up there with Superman and Captain Planet. That’s because no economist out there has so tirelessly advocated for help for the 3 billion people who lack access to electricity or depend on wood, charcoal, and other solid biomass fuels for cooking and heating. In his most recent statement, Dr. Birol points out that it would take only about 3% of the projected global energy investment of over USD 26 Continue reading
Funding
Financing the clean cookstove revolution the green way
Financing the large-scale deployment of clean cookstoves A Q&A with Evan Haigler of Impact Carbon In late September 2010, several dozen men and women from around the world crammed into a small room at the United Nation’s Foundation’s headquarters in midtown New York to discuss how to deliver 100 million cookstoves by 2020 to the homes of the 3 billion people worldwide who lack access to clean safe energy. The challenge had been laid down a few days earlier by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she announced the creation of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a $50 million Continue reading
How to Finance Clean Tech and Green Fuels for the globe’s 3 billion biomass dependent
OPINION Creating a new asset class for investments in energy efficiency solutions for the world’s biomass dependent. We know that about half of the world’s population depends on wood, charcoal and other solid biomass for their daily cooking and heating needs. We also know the other half of the planet depends on fossil fuels to meet the same needs (and others, like transportation, etc.). According to a blog post by Jake Schmidt, Policy director for the US environmental non-profit Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the global clean energy market generated $243 billion in investments in 2010. This represents a 30% Continue reading
Cancun: A flat-line or heartbeat for energy poverty alleviation?
OPINION
When it comes to deploying energy efficient technologies — like clean cookstoves, improved charcoal-making kilns, and sustainable alternatives to wood, charcoal, and animal dung fuels for the world’s three billion energy poor — the ratio of words to action and funding has, until recently, been woefully lopsided.
A Insider’s Perspective on the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves
Kirk Smith, Ph.D., is probably the world’s leading authority on the public health impact of indoor air pollution caused by the incomplete combustion of biomass fuels for cooking and heating. His recent remarks help cast some light on what stakeholders can expect from the recent launch of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. We’ve borrowed the following excerpt from the good people at Indoor Air Pollution Updates and we urge you to click on the link to read the extended article. Smith KR, What’s Cooking? A Brief Update, Energy for Sustainable Development (2010), doi:10.1016/j. esd.2010.10.002 Full-text: http://ehs.sph.berkeley.edu/krsmith/publications/2010/ESD_whats_cooking.pdf (pdf, 89KB) Extensive world press Continue reading