Climate Action 2016-2017

Image by Power Africa
ENERGY
ENERGY ACCESS MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
More than a billion people in the world today
have no access to electricity, and nearly
three billion depend for cooking on polluting,
dangerous fuels. Think for a moment what
that means. Women spend hours every day
just gathering firewood. Children cannot study
after nightfall. Farmers have no means to
pump water. Food and vaccines spoil for want
of a refrigerator. This is a scene where lives
are stifled and enterprise cannot blossom.
Now turn that on its head. Imagine a
village as night falls, in any low-income
country you choose. The woman is making
dinner on an electric stove. Her children’s
school books are brightly lit. Her mobile
phone is charging. The fruit juices that she
makes to sell in the local market are safe in
the refrigerator.
This is already possible. The tools that allow
people to thrive already exist: cheap solar
technology, business models linked to mobile
phone platforms, super-efficient appliances.
But we need to go further, faster.
for about 40 per cent of the total abatement
of greenhouse gas emissions we need. At
the same time, improvements in energy
productivity could generate an additional US$18
trillion in global GDP between 2012 and 2035.
Any country, even the poorest, can exploit
efficiency, the easiest, cheapest, energy
source. Governments must make a total
commitment to looking aggressively at energy
productivity, realising savings and forcing
business to up its game. It is quite possible to
do more with less. For business, emphasising
energy productivity shifts the focus from
energy conservation towards how energy can
best be used to maximise not only the greater
social, environmental and economic good, but
also a company’s own bottom line.
Second, we need to place access at the
very heart of our energy strategies. Far-sighted
governments are already driving this process.
Bangladesh, for example, heads the list of
countries with the fastest percentage increase
in electricity access in SEforALL’s Global
Tracking Framework 2015. Its national solar
home programme, executed by the state-owned
Infrastructure Development Company Limited
"Paris calls for a
swift ramping up
of renewables in
the energy mix, and
investment in the smart
grids needed for reliable,
affordable, clean power
to be the norm."
(IDCOL), is one of the biggest and fastest
growing off-grid renewable energy programmes
in the world. Since 2003 it has installed around
four million solar home systems, working at a
rate of more than 70,000 per month.
This is not just a matter for the public
sector. Creative businesses are delivering
70