MakingItIndustry for Development

Timeto go

green?

Number 2

Windof

change

� Bianca Jagger: After Copenhagen � Suntech Power� Energy transitionsfor industry� Carbon captureand storage

A new quarterly magazine.Stimulating, critical andconstructive. A forum fordiscussion and exchangeabout the intersection ofindustry and development.

Issue 1, December 2009�Rwanda means business: interview with President Paul Kagame�How I became an environmentalist: A small-town story with global

implications by Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, Green For All� ‘We must let nature inspire us’ – Gunter Pauli presents an alternative

business model that is environmentally-friendly and sustainable�Old computers – new business. Microsoft on sustainable solutions

for tackling e-waster�Green industry in Asia: Conference participants interviewed�Hot Topic: Is it possible to have prosperity without growth? Is ‘green

growth’ really possible?�Policy Brief: Greening industrial policy; Disclosing carbon emissions

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The theme of this – the second – issue of Making It: Industry forDevelopment is energy, specifically the provision of energy to spursustainable development, to facilitate productive activities bypowering tools, machinery, and manufacturing processes in waysthat will cause less – ideally no – damage to our environment.

The world cannot address the threat of climate change withoutdealing with the issues of energy access and energy solutions. We cannot fight poverty without creating wealth, and it’s notpossible to create wealth without a cheap source of energy topower economic activities. And we can’t achieve any of theMillennium Development Goals without improving access toaffordable and reliable sources of energy.

What are the renewable energy options for developingcountries? How can industries across the globe increase output to meet a growing demand while, at the same time, reducegreenhouse gas emissions? What needs to be done to give theworld’s poorest people access to energy, and how can it be done?

Energy for development is a vast topic, and Making It hopes toact as a thought-provoker, and as a catalyst for a wider and deeperdiscussion and debate.

Making It’s new website – www.makingitmagazine.net– provides an interactive platform for exchange of

views and ideas, and we invite you – our readers– to join in. We want to know how you see thistopic, what energy for development means toyour country, your community, yourbusiness. If you agree, or disagree, or even ifyou think our contributors have missed the

point, we want your reactions, your response.

Editorial

Editor: Charles Arthureditor@makingitmagazine.netEditorial committee: Ralf Bredel,Tillmann Günther, Sarwar Hobohm,Kazuki Kitaoka, Ole Lundby (chair), Cormac O’ReillyCover illustration by PatrickChappatte – www.globecartoon.comDesign: Smith+Bell, UK –www.smithplusbell.comThanks for assistance to LaurenBrassaw, Donna Coleman, andDaisy Lau C.F.

Printed by Imprimerie CentraleS.A., Luxembourg – www.ic.luon PEFC certified paper

To view this publication online and toparticipate in discussions aboutindustry for development, please visitwww.makingitmagazine.netTo subscribe and receive futureissues of Making It, please send anemail with your name and address tosubscriptions@makingitmagazine.netMaking It: Industry for Developmentis published by the United NationsIndustrial DevelopmentOrganization (UNIDO)Vienna International Centre, P.O. Box 300, 1400 Vienna, AustriaTelephone: (+43-1) 26026-0, Fax: (+43-1) 26926-69E-mail: unido@unido.orgCopyright © 2010 The UnitedNations Industrial DevelopmentOrganization No part of this publication can beused or reproduced without priorpermission from the editorISSN 2076-8508

Contents

GLOBAL FORUM6 Letters7 After Copenhagen – Bianca Jagger10 Hot topic – The pros and cons of biofuels

14 Business matters – News, trends,innovations, and events

FEATURES16 Renewable energy options in developingcountries – José Goldemberg and OswaldoLucon review the current state of play19 Energy transitions for industry – Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director of theInternational Energy Agency

22 KEYNOTE FEATUREEnergy for all – Kandeh Yumkella, Director-General of the United Nations IndustrialDevelopment Organization, and LeenaSrivastava, Executive Director of the Energyand Resources Institute, on what needs to bedone to improve energy access

MakingItIndustry for Development

The designations employed and thepresentation of the material in this magazinedo not imply the expression of any opinionwhatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of theUnited Nations Industrial DevelopmentOrganization (UNIDO) concerning the legalstatus of any country, territory, city or area orof its authorities, or concerning thedelimitation of its frontiers or boundaries, orits economic system or degree ofdevelopment. Designations such as“developed”, “industrialized” and “developing”are intended for statistical convenience and donot necessarily express a judgment about thestage reached by a particular country or area inthe development process. Mention of firmnames or commercial products does notconstitute an endorsement by UNIDO.The opinions, statistical data and estimatescontained in signed articles are theresponsibility of the author(s), including thosewho are UNIDO members of staff, and shouldnot be considered as reflecting the views orbearing the endorsement of UNIDO.This document has been produced withoutformal United Nations editing.

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Number 2, April2010

30 Women entrepreneurs transformingBangladesh – Dipal Barua says renewableenergy systems can help empower womenand create jobs32 Everywhere under the sun – Zhengrong Shi,founder and CEO of Suntech Power, extolsthe virtues of nature’s most abundant energyresource36 Energy for development – Interview withAustria’s Foreign Minister, MichaelSpindelegger

40 Carbon capture and storage – Statoil CEO,Helge Lund, explains how CCS can helpmitigate climate change

POLICY BRIEF42 Financing renewable energy43 How policy-makers can make a difference 44 Getting FiT: Feed-in tariffs

46 Endpiece – Alice Amsden on industrialpolicy and poverty reduction

16

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1922

LETTERS

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Microsoft and e-wasteI am surprised to see thatMaking It (Issue 1, December2009) has Microsoft writingabout e-waste. Greenpeace hasjust released its newest Guideto Green Electronics, evaluatingthe top 18 manufacturers ofpersonal computers, mobilephones, TVs, and gamesconsoles based on theirpolicies on toxic chemicals,recycling and climate change.Microsoft drops two placessince the last evaluation, and isnow in place 17 of 18companies!

The Greenpeace report statesthat: “On e-waste, Microsofthas now engaged in an EUcoalition supportingIndividual ProducerResponsibility... (but) on othere-waste criteria, Microsoft failsto score any points.”

Specifically it states,“Microsoft provides links tovarious recycling initiatives byMicrosoft (MAR, DigitalPipeline), other organisations(eg. CEA’s myGreenElectronics)and other electronicmanufacturers, but it still doesnot provide free take-back forits own products.” Andcontinues, “Microsoft is usingrecycled plastics in productpackaging films but no detailsare given about its use inhardware products.” �Constantine Simpson,received by email

A Microsoft spokespersonsent the following response: Microsoft’s commitment toenvironmental sustainabilityincludes strategies to minimizethe impact of our operations;using IT to improve energyefficiency; and acceleratingresearch breakthroughs that willhelp scientific understanding ona global scale. We acknowledgethat more work remains toachieve our sustainability goalsand continue to work to improveupon our efforts.

In our consumer electronicsbusiness, we comply with or exceedall applicable environmentalguidelines and regulations. We arecommitted to making progress onenvironmental issues withoutdetracting from the durability,safety, performance, and affordablecost that consumers demand. Weconstantly look for ways to be moreefficient, use fewer materials, andalways seek continuousimprovement, while keepingquality up and cost down.Moreover, we have eliminatedsubstances and reduced materialswithout sacrificing ourcommitment to consumer safety,innovation, and quality.

Time to go green!Making It magazine is a verywelcome contribution toUNIDO’s efforts to stimulatethe debate on development andto make itself known to a widerpublic. It uses plain terms anddoes not shun controversy. Ihave been a regular UNIDOconsultant over the past quarterof a century, and I have not seen

such a publication. I wish itevery success.

In relation to the Hot Topicarticles around the theme of‘prosperity without growth’ inthe first issue: with regard tonature, manufacturing has so farbasically assumed that it’spossible to have a free lunch – itdoes not return to the biospherewhat it takes from it. We havefinally understood that this is aproblem. The title on the coverof the first issue of Making It–‘Time to go green’ – should havebeen followed by an exclamationmark, not a question mark. � Paul Hesp, received by email

Environmentalconcerns aluxury?This is a good article (“How Ibecame an environmentalist’’ –Making It, Issue 1), but I wonderhow Ms Ellis Lamkins wouldfind it in a much poorercountry. California is certainlynot a poor place, and I wonderif the environment meanssomething also to people wholive on only a few cents everyday in Africa and Asia? �Marko Simic, received byemail

The Making It editor responds:I think Ellis-Lamkins’ article ismaking the point that health andsafety, and the environment, areimmediate concerns to workers incountries all over the world. As shewrites, parents want to “keep theirchildren and communities healthy,safe, and economically viable.”

HookedSeeing the first issue ofMaking It, one cannot be butimpressed by the quality ofthe production: first andforemost in terms of content,then the lay-out, colour anddesign. While the markettrend is from print to digital,this print version travels withme! Having started threepublishing ventures myself, Iknow it takes professionals toget the reader hooked on yourmaterial, and you certainly didit for me.� Prof. Gunter Pauli, founderof Zero Emissions Researchand Initiatives, author of TheBlue Economy, Tokyo, Japan

BrilliantThank you very much forproviding me with a copy ofyour magazine. As a formerAustrian representative to theUN, and the current Chairmanof the Advisory Board of theEuropean Training Centre forHuman Rights andDemocracy, I look forward tofuture issues. With bestregards, and all good wishesfor this brilliant initiative.�Walther Lichem, Vienna,Austria

The Global Forum section of Making It is a spacefor interaction and discussion, and we welcomereactions and responses from readers about any

of the issues raised in the magazine. Letters for publication in Making It should be marked ‘For publication’, and sent either by email to: editor@makingitmagazine.net or by post to: The Secretary, Making It, Room D2226, UNIDO, PO Box 300, 1400 Vienna, Austria. (Letters/emails may be edited for reasons of space).

To provide a platform for further discussion of the issues raised in Making It, a magazinewebsite has been created at www.makingitmagazine.net and readers are encouraged to surf onover to the site to join in the online discussion and debate about industry for development.

GLOBAL FORUM

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The experience of participating at theCopenhagen climate change summit(COP15) in December is not one I willeasily forget. It was a unique opportunityto set the world on the right path to avoidcatastrophic climate change. For twodays, most of the world’s leaderscongregated under one roof for acommon purpose. Attended by 120Heads of State, COP15 was the largestgathering of its kind held outside of theannual UN General Assembly in NewYork. The two weeks of meetings,extending late into the night, marked theculmination of two years of intensivenegotiations. The conference was thefocus of unprecedented public andmedia attention. And yet, the result – theCopenhagen Accord – was a shamefulcompromise.

Yvo de Boer has recently announced hisintention to stand down as head of theUnited Nations Framework Conventionon Climate Change (UNFCCC). In the run-up to COP15 he was unequivocal about theconference being successful only if itdelivered significant and immediateaction. Sadly, COP15 failed to deliver.

Henry Ford once said that “most peoplespend more time and energy going aroundproblems than in trying to solve them”,and this was true of all too many of thenegotiating positions on display at COP15.Those leaders and negotiators must takefull responsibility for their actions.

Not legally bindingThe failure at Copenhagen has been feltacross the world, resulting in graveuncertainty about the ability of world

leaders to deliver a comprehensive, legallybinding, international climate changetreaty. The words “legally binding” wereconspicuously absent from the three-pagetext of the Copenhagen Accord. TheAccord is merely “politically binding” forthose countries that choose to sign up toit. Furthermore, it does not set emissionsreduction targets for either 2020 or 2050,nor does it set a deadline by which theaction points should become enforceable.

The Conference of Parties inCopenhagen did not even “adopt” theAccord. They “took note” of it. Rob Fowler,chair of the IUCN Academy ofEnvironmental Law, commented, “Theexact status of the so-called ‘CopenhagenAccord’ ...is unclear... (It) fails to achieveeven the status of a ‘soft-law’ instrument,and thus constitutes the most minimaloutcome conceivably possible.”

The end of the meeting saw leaders ofthe United States and the BASIC Group ofcountries (Brazil, South Africa, India andChina) hammering out a last-minute dealin a back room. It was as though the ninemonths of preparatory talks had neverhappened, and the Bali Action Plan

BIANCA JAGGER, who attended the climate changeconference in Copenhagen in December 2009, is stronglycritical of the resulting accord, and calls for immediateand concrete steps to avert climate catastrophe.

AfterCopenhagen

� In 2004, BIANCA JAGGER received the Right Livelihood Award, known as the‘Alternative Nobel Prize’, for her “long-standing commitment and dedicatedcampaigning over a wide range of issues of human rights, social justice, andenvironmental protection”. She is the founder and chair of the Bianca JaggerHuman Rights Foundation. �

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adopted in 2007 had never existed. Thisgroup found it easier to reach a (non)-agreement behind closed doors on a fewbasic points of principle, rather than workout a treaty via the formal UNFCCCprocess. Although the European Unionhad been the clear global leader in thefight against climate change dating backto COP3 in 1997 when the Kyoto Protocolwas adopted, it was not involved in thismeeting. UNFCCC participants werepresented with a fait accompli perceived bymany as a ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ ultimatum.

The Copenhagen Accord did not achieveunanimous consent – several partiesraised points of order. As Tuvalu’s PrimeMinister Apisai Ielemia said, in the UNsystem “nations large and small are givenequal respect; the public announcementof a deal before bringing it before the COPmeeting was disrespectful of the processand the UN system.” He highlightedmajor problems with the politicalagreement, saying it lacked a scientificbasis, an international insurancemechanism, and guarantees on thecontinued existence of the Kyoto Protocol.“We came here expecting an open andtransparent process. Unfortunately this isnot happening.”

What transpired at Copenhagen leftdeveloping countries frustrated abouttheir marginalization by the developedworld, about their exclusion from policymaking, and about the lack oftransparency in the way the negotiationswere conducted.

350 parts per millionThe Copenhagen Accord acknowledgesthat a rise of more than two degreesCelsius is catastrophic, but it contains nofirm commitments to address thisimpending global crisis. Professor JamesHansen, Head of the NASA GoddardInstitute for Space Studies is emphatic:“The safe upper limit for atmospheric

CO2 is no more than 350 parts per million(ppm).” Atmospheric levels are currentlyhovering at around 389ppm.

The UN Programme on ReducingEmissions from Deforestation and ForestDegradation in Developing Countries(REDD) was supposed to have been part ofthe legally binding treaty. Emissions fromdeforestation account for approximately20% of greenhouse gas emissions, and theStern Review of the Economics of ClimateChange argues that “curbing deforestationis a highly cost-effective way of reducinggreenhouse gas emissions.” Planting 10million square kilometres of naturalforests will help stabilize theconcentration of CO2 in the earth’satmosphere at the 350ppm that ProfessorHansen prescribes.

In the absence of a legally binding treaty,the implementation of REDD rests onvoluntary, country-driven activity. Thelowest estimates on the financing ofREDD are predicted to be US$22.4 – $37.3billion from 2010-15 just to support

preparatory activities. To date, sixdeveloped nations, Australia, France,Japan, Norway, the UK and the US, andhave pledged a total of US$3.5 billion tosupport the implementation of REDDbetween 2010 and 2012.

The Accord does contain a commitmentby developed countries to pay thedeveloping world US$30 billion of“climate aid” over the next three years, with the aim of increasing this amount toUS$100 billion a year from 2020. Howeverthis offer is not legally binding. There is nomention of which countries will receivefinancing, in which amounts, on whatconditions, or under which mechanisms.

Vapour moneyEven concrete financing pledges can beunpredictable, conditional, and selectivewhen implemented, and the finance‘goals’ contained in the Accord areanything but concrete. As ProfessorHansen puts it, even the money promisedto developing countries is “…vapour

�

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money. There’s no mechanism for suchfinancing to actually occur, and noexpectation that it will.”

‘Vapour money’ is not good enough. Wemust call for a concrete fiscal plan toincentivize sustainable development.There were no ‘goals’ when governmentswere delivering bailouts to the banksduring the recent global financial crisis.The amount of money put up by theUnited States alone to save its banks wasUS$750 billion.

After the Copenhagen meetingconcluded, the French newspaperLibération lamented the speed andcommitment to saving the planetcompared with saving the global financialsystem: “We must make the bitterobservation: when it comes to rescuingthe banking system, the dialogue has beenfar more effective and determined. It isclearly easier to save finance, than it is tosave the planet.”

The question of how to move forward isa tough one. How do we achieve acontractual commitment, when worldleaders, brought together for onepurpose, and with all the resources of theCOP15, failed?

First vital testCountries were asked to submit theirvoluntary proposed domestic greenhousegas (GHG) reduction pledges in acommon document by January 31st, 2010.This was the first vital test of the Accord’srelevance. By mid-February, 55 countrieshad submitted plans to cut GHGemissions. The most significant target todate has been set by Norway, whichpledged 30-40% reductions by 2020.Similarly, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Japan,and Iceland have made commitments toreduce GHG emissions in the range of30%, and the EU has committed to a 20-30% reduction. All of these countries havebased their reductions relative to 1990

levels. By contrast, the United States andCanada have framed their pledges indeceptive terms, offering to reduceemissions by 17% relative to 2005 levels,which amount to a mere 3.2% reductionrelative to 1990 levels.

India, the world’s fifth largest polluter,has pledged to reduce carbon emissionsby 20-25% by 2020, relative to 2005 levels,although there is no indication whatmeasures they will take to meet the goal.Similarly, China “will endeavour to reduceits emissions per unit of GDP by 40 to 45%by 2020.” China’s plan also includes“increasing the share of non-fossil fuels inprimary energy consumption to around15% by 2020, and increasing forestcoverage by 40 million hectares and foreststock volume by 1.3 billion cubic meters by2020 relative to 2005 levels.”

Commitment to the Accord andcountries’ adherence to their own targetswill be entirely self-monitored. Somestates have indicated their support for theAccord, but have submitted no targets to

date. Some have submitted reductiontargets, but have not indicated supportfor the Accord.

Immediate actionThe failure of world leaders to broker aglobal, comprehensive, legally bindingtreaty was an appalling abdication ofresponsibility. I am not being alarmist;the situation is alarming. The time forfurther excuses and postponements, forprocrastination or prevarication, haslong passed. Now is the time fordecision-makers in politics andeconomics to take concrete steps to avert climate catastrophe; the time forcourage and leadership, and forimmediate action. Tackling climatechange is the over-riding moralimperative of the century. Our future,the fate of future generations, and thefuture of all other species on this planethangs in the balance.

Now, more than ever, nations, societies,communities, and individuals areinterconnected and interdependent. It isan intellectual illusion to believe that thecrises that besiege our world today canbe compartmentalised, and that we canaddress them without revolutionizingour way of life. Climate change will affecteveryone, everywhere, in every state, andfrom every socio-economic group, inhundreds of ways: from the pollution ofcities to erosion in rural areas; fromcontamination of the oceans and riversto desertification; from mass migrationto overcrowded cities, and the security ofindividuals and states. We must changethe way we live, eat, think, do business,and travel, in order to build a society on asolid sustainable foundation.

We cannot do this without cooperationbetween nations, states, leaders, parties,organizations, and individuals. At thiscritical juncture in history, we will eitherstand or fall together. �

“I am not being alarmist; the situation is alarming. The time for further excusesand postponements, for pro-crastination or prevarication,has long passed.”

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JEAN ZIEGLER, vice-chairperson of theAdvisory Committee of the United NationsHuman Rights Council, and former UnitedNations Special Rapporteur on the Right toFood (2000-2008).

Every five seconds a child below ten yearsof age dies from hunger. Every fourminutes somebody loses his/her eye-sightfrom a lack of Vitamin A. Every day 25,000people die from hunger, or immediately-related causes. Over one billion people aregravely, permanently, undernourished.One of the most brutal consequences ofmalnutrition is noma, a devastatingdisease that mainly affects children underthe age of 12. The disease leaves a terriblehole in the child’s face – that is if theysurvive, given the death rate of 80-90%. Itis a shocking reality, and an odious ironythat the same Food and AgricultureOrganization report which gives thenumber of the victims of world foodinsecurity, indicates that global agriculturein its present stage of development could,without problem, nourish twelve billionpeople, i.e. almost double the currentworld population.

In recent years, biofuels have beenpraised as not only a solution to climatechange and energy insecurity, but also asan option that can address the food

insecurity that ravages parts of the world.However, even before the peak of the foodcrisis in 2008, when the controversyregarding biofuels reached its climax,concerns were being voiced about theeffect that increased biofuel productioncould have on the right to food.

Environmental impactRecent research shows that biofuels, in andby themselves, do not represent anenvironmental panacea. Whether biofuelsare ‘green’, and offer carbon savings,depends on how they are produced. Sugarcane, for example, is considered to be veryeffective for the production of bioethanol,and the consumption of the latter is lessdamaging to the environment than is theuse of conventional fuels. Nonetheless, the

benefits of bioethanol diminishconsiderably if carbon-rich tropical forestsare being converted into sugar caneplantations, thereby causing vast increasesin greenhouse gas emissions. According toone estimate, converting rainforests,peatland, savannas, or grasslands intofields to produce food crop–based biofuelsin Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia, and theUnited States, creates a “biofuel carbondebt”. The process will create up to 420times more CO2 than the annualgreenhouse gas reductions that thesebiofuels would provide by replacing fossilfuels. Biofuel production, in suchconditions, has the function of anenvironmental Trojan horse.

On large-scale palm oil plantations inBorneo and Sumatra, and on sugar canefarms in Brazil, water waste and waterpollution, overuse of fertilizers, soilerosion, localized air pollution due tochemical spraying, and burning the landafter the harvest, are all major problems.The negative environmental effects ofbiofuel production clearly have an impacton the realization of the right to food formillions of people in the medium andlong term, in particular those groupswhich require accesses to fertile soil andclean water to grow their food.

Food pricesIn the 2007 Special Rapporteur’s report tothe United Nations General Assembly, Iraised the issue of the role biofuels playin the increase in international foodprices. Many other expert voices havesince made the same link. A World Bankstudy estimates that 70-75% of theincrease in food commodity prices from2002 to 2008 was due to biofuels, and therelated consequences of low grain stocks,large land-use shifts, speculative activity,and export bans. The InternationalMonetary Fund’s John Lipsky estimatesthat the use of food crops, especially

Biofuels: a right tofood perspective

In what is a regular feature, Making It invites distinguishedcontributors to consider one of the controversial issues of the day.The debate continues: what are the pro and cons of biofuels?

“A World Bank studyestimates that 70-75% of theincrease in food commodityprices from 2002 to 2008 wasdue to biofuels”

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maize, to make bioethanol, is responsiblefor at least 40% of the price explosion.Subsidies and other fiscal tools aimed atpromoting the use of biofuels, inparticular in the USA and the EuropeanUnion, have decisively contributed to arising demand for sugar, maize, wheat,oilseeds, and palm oil. The incentive toproduce crops for biofuels was furtheraugmented by the high price of oil, whichmade biofuels an even more attractivealternative to fossil fuels. A food/fuelcompetition could be observed as globalwheat and maize stocks declinedconsiderably. The stronger demand forthese food commodities as biofuel inputscaused a surge in their prices in worldmarkets, which in turn resulted in higherfood prices. The International FoodPolicy Research Institute projects that thenumber of people suffering fromundernourishment could increase by 16million for each percentage pointincrease in the real price of staple food.

Vulnerable groupsCareful attention needs to be paid to thevarious social impacts that theproduction of biofuels have on vulnerablegroups. The development of biofuelproduction potentially does have animportant role to play in povertyreduction, and hence in realizing theright of everyone to an adequate standardof living, including food security.Nonetheless, experience has shown thereare other less welcome social impacts.

The expansion of biofuel production inLatin America, and parts of South-eastAsia and Africa, has resulted in violationsof land rights and forced evictions – thishas been thoroughly documented inmany studies and reports by UN agencies.Among those who are particularly affectedare indigenous peoples, smallholders, andforest dwellers. Furthermore, whendiscussing land rights, it is essential totake gender into account. Land tenuresystems throughout the world are

systematically discriminating againstwomen, very often making land rightsdependent on marital status. In thiscontext, the increase in biofuel cropproduction may come at a high cost to thefood security of rural women, who willrarely be able to mount a legal challengeto their displacement by powerfulagribusinesses. Along these lines, landconcentration – the acquisition of largeportions of land usually by foreigncorporations or states – may lead, as oneanalyst warns, to a “process ofmarginalization or eviction ofsmallholders to an unprecedenteddegree, transforming them either intobadly-paid workers or swelling thenumber of urban poor.”

Less jobsSome proponents present biofuels as a realopportunity for employment creation, andthus implicitly beneficial for the foodsecurity of those employed. Empiricshowever offer a more complex – if not acontradictory – reality. In countries wherethere has been a strong expansion inbiofuel production, employment infarming appears to have decreased, and agrowing trend for seasonal jobs isobservable. The increasing mechanizationof the harvest process means that long-term employment predictions must benegative. If we agree that more jobs meanmore food security, then less jobs and lessstable jobs clearly point to food insecurityand a threat to the realization of the rightto food.

An alarming number of reports byNGOs and governmental andintergovernmental agencies areemphasizing the often catastrophic wagesand horrific working conditions in palmoil and sugar cane plantations. A system ofdebt bondage can be observed, whicheffectively subjects workers to slave-likerelations with the owners of the �

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STEPHEN KAREKEZI and JOHN KIMANI –AFREPREN/FWD (Energy, Environment,and Development Network for Africa), anon-governmental organization based inNairobi, Kenya.

Recent high oil and coal prices, as well asan intensified debate about climatechange, have led many analysts to suggestthat modern bioenergy development couldmitigate the negative impacts of unstablefossil fuel prices and continued reliance oninefficient and unhealthy traditionalbiomass energy options, as well ascontribute to reducing greenhouse gasemissions. Consequently, over the lastthree to four years, many sub-SaharanAfrican countries have started modernbioenergy initiatives, and a number ofthem have rushed into agreements withinternational investors for large-scaleliquid biofuel development.

Some countries have allowed theclearing of virgin forest land, as well as theconversion of land suitable for food cropsinto fields for biofuel crops, with probableadverse impacts on forest stocks and foodsecurity. In addition, many of the newbiofuel programmes are not designed tomeet internal demand, but are largelyaimed at international export markets,especially the European Union (EU), whichhas announced ambitious biofuel targets.

The above developments have led someAfrican governments to implementmeasures that limit the direct productionof bioenergy (particularly liquid biofuel)from food crops and/or from formerfood-producing farmlands. For example,

in 2008, the President of the UnitedRepublic of Tanzania banned thecultivation of jatropha in a regionearmarked for rice production.

The controversy over liquid biofueldevelopment in sub-Saharan Africa hasovershadowed less well-known, butsuccessful, biofuel options that deliversignificant positive impacts to both ruralsmall-scale farmers and nationaleconomies in sub-Saharan African. One of the most significant of these is highpressure cogeneration from the by-products of cane sugar production.

Cogeneration Cogeneration is the simultaneousproduction of electricity and process heatfrom a single dynamic power plant. Acogeneration power plant burns bagasse(the fibrous residue remaining aftersugarcane stalks are crushed to extracttheir juice) to generate steam for processheat, and for driving a turbine to produceelectricity. Bagasse-based cogenerationutilizes the waste material which isotherwise a nuisance for sugar refineries –it is a fire hazard, as well as anenvironmental concern as thedecomposition of bagasse releasesmethane, a more potent greenhouse gasthan carbon dioxide.

Bagasse-based cogeneration is not a newtechnology in the sub-Saharan Africansugar industry, but what is novel is the useof highly efficient cogenerationequipment to create an increasinglyimportant source of commercial energysupply. Leading in this process is

Bioenergy developmentin sub-Saharan Africa plantation and/or other intermediaries.

Hunger and the need to feed theirfamilies leads individuals to acceptappalling working conditions – at timesbordering on or equivalent to slavery.

Structural reformsWe have to start assessing biofuels throughthe prism of the one billion hungry peopleon the planet today. In other words,governments have to meet their legalresponsibility to respect, protect, and fulfiltheir populations’ right to food. Hence, ifbiofuel production is to be expanded, thenstructural reforms are necessary to addressstructural issues. We cannot just pay lip-service to the well-being of current andfuture generations. There must be landreforms targeted at empoweringvulnerable groups, such as landlesslabourers, forest dwellers, smallholders,indigenous groups, and women. Budgetsneed to be adjusted to support suchprogrammes, and to reflect theprioritization of vulnerable groups withrespect to the right to food. And legislativemeasures that promote inclusive models –such as Brazil’s Pro-Biodiesel programme– should be replicated and pursued as apriority. Such measures would bringbiofuels closer to being able to deliver thepromised social solution.

Meanwhile, developed countries – partlyresponsible for the growing demand forbiofuels as a result of their subsidyschemes – must acknowledge and addressthe social and environmental effects of theproduction, and the expansion ofproduction, of biofuels. After all, as Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote many years ago,“Between the powerful and the weak, it isliberty that oppresses and it is the law thatliberates.” The right to food must beupheld by all. �

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development has resulted neither in anincreased competition for land, nor in anincrease in food prices – the two mostnotable negative impacts of large scalebioenergy development. In fact, over time,while increased cogeneration developmenthas led to additional electricity supply, theland area on which sugarcane is cultivatedhas been declining – implying thatincreased efficiency in cogeneration haspartly led to freeing up land for other uses,including food production.

Several other sub-Saharan Africancountries have already begun to follow inthe footsteps of Mauritius. Ethiopia, Kenya,Malawi, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda and theUnited Republic of Tanzania, are takingpart in ‘Cogen for Africa’, an innovative,regional, clean energy initiative funded bythe Global Environment Facility andimplemented by AFREPREN/FWD.

The potential for sub-Saharan Africa as awhole is significant. Based on current sugarproduction in sub-Saharan Africa, bagasse-based cogeneration from sugar industriescan meet about 5% of the total electricity

Mauritius, where, thanks to the extensiveuse of bagasse-based cogeneration, thecountry's sugar industry is self-sufficientin electricity and is able to sell the excess tothe national grid. The sugar industry isnow contributing over half of theelectricity supply on the island.Cogeneration in Mauritius is designed touse bagasse during the cane harvestingseason (roughly six months), with coalused to generate the electricity supply forthe rest of the year.

Bagasse-based cogenerationdevelopment in Mauritius has delivered anumber of benefits, including reduceddependence on imported oil,diversification in electricity generation,improved efficiency in the power sector ingeneral, and increased incomes forsmallholder sugar farmers. It has alsohelped sugar factories in Mauritius toweather fluctuations in global sugar prices,including the reduction in the EU’spreferential sugar prices to African,Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries. Inrecent years, the revenue from the sale ofexcess electricity from cogeneration hasenabled Mauritian sugar factories toremain profitable.

Revenue sharingPerhaps one of the most importantachievements is the use of a wide variety ofinnovative revenue sharing measures. Forexample, the Mauritian cogenerationindustry has worked closely with thegovernment to ensure that substantialmonetary benefits from the sale ofelectricity from cogeneration flow to allkey stakeholders of the sugar economy,including the poor, smallholder, sugarfarmers. The equitable revenue sharingpolicies in Mauritius provide a model forongoing and planned bioenergy projectsin other sub-Saharan African countries.

Another important development to noteis that, in Mauritius, cogeneration

demand in the region. If biomass wastefrom other agro-industries and fromforestry industries is included, about 10%of electricity in the region could begenerated through cogeneration.

Key lessonThe key lesson from the success ofbagasse-based cogeneration in Mauritius isthe need to prioritize the effective use ofexisting agricultural wastes for conversioninto modern bioenergy fuels. This optionhas the least adverse impact on the poor,and could provide additional revenue forpoor, rural communities. However, itrequires establishing effective revenue-sharing mechanisms that ensure that thehigher revenues from the exploitation ofagricultural wastes are shared in anequitable fashion, and flow to allstakeholders, especially to the low-incomefarmers. It also requires enacting a legaland regulatory framework that allows forthe development of modern agro-waste-based bioenergy, and that provides, amongother incentives, access to the power gridand transport fuel market. In some cases,mechanisms for efficient centralization ofagricultural wastes would also need to bein place.

Once sub-Saharan African countries haveoptimized the use of existing agriculturalwastes for energy generation, and put inplace adequate revenue-sharing, regulatory,and policy frameworks, they can considerthe option of large-scale bioenergyplantations, while carefully balancing anyassociated trade-offs between food securityand energy generation. Fortunately, thetechnical, regulatory, and policy expertiseneeded to promote an equitableagricultural waste energy industry in manycases also provides the skills needed todevelop and nurture a sustainable,dedicated bioenergy plantation sector thatdoes not adversely affect the poor ordecrease food security. �

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�The pace of global growthpicked up in February, with astrong manufacturing sectorleading the way for services, butfirms continued to cut jobs,according to the Global TotalOutput Index, produced by thefinancial services firm, JPMorgan. “The recovery was againfirmly centred on themanufacturing sector, however, asthe rebound in services remainedfragile in comparison,” said thefirm’s David Hensley. (JP Morgan)

� Recent GDP data from acrossthe region suggest that Asianeconomies are in the vanguard of

strong but uneven recovery,according to a report from theManufacturers Alliance/MAPI.The report focuses on LatinAmerica’s three largest economies– Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico –as these countries are responsiblefor more than 80% of themanufacturing output in theregion. MAPI forecasts thatoverall manufacturing output inLatin America will decline 7.9%in 2009, but should rebound in2010 with 5% growth. (MAPI)

� Spending on clean energy heldup better than expected duringthe financial crisis and resultingrecession in 2009, but aconsiderable gap still existsbetween current levels ofinvestment and what is needed tobegin reducing the world’s carbon

In November 2009, the Norwegian company, Statkraft, opened aprototype power plant that generates electricity using the naturalprocess that keeps plants standing upright and the cells ofanimal bodies swollen, rigid, and hydrated. Osmosis occurswhen two solutions of different concentrations meet at a semi-permeable membrane.

At the osmotic power plant at Tofte, near Oslo, the twosolutions used are sea and fresh water, siphoned from near thepoint where they meet at the mouth of a fjord. The sea and freshwater are guided into separate chambers, divided by an artificialmembrane. The salt molecules in the sea water pull the freshwater through the membrane, increasing the pressure on thesea water side. This pressure can be used to turn a power-generating turbine.

The prototype plant at Tofte has a limited production capacity,and is intended primarily for testing and developmentpurposes. Many of the world’s major cities are on river estuarieswhere sea and fresh water are easily available, and Statkraftestimates the total global potential of osmotic power to bearound 1700 terawatt-hours per year – about 10% of the world’scurrent electricity consumption. The company hopes that acommercial osmotic power plant will be constructed within afew years’ time.

Unlike wind and solar power, osmotic power can provide acontinuous source of energy, although seasonal river-levelchanges do cause some fluctuations. Critics also say that scalingup the technology could prove difficult because fundamentalquestions, such as the effect of silt and river bacteria on themembranes’ performance over time, have not been resolved.

Copenhagen, Denmark: Havingset a target of zero carbonemissions by 2025, the citycould meet 50% of its heatingneeds by using its geothermalresources.Larderello, Italy: Boasts the veryfirst geothermal power plant,which opened at the beginningof the 20th century.Reykjavik, Iceland: Abundantgeothermal resources provide

heat for approximately 87% ofIceland’s buildings.Reno, Nevada, USA: City andbusiness leaders are marketingthe city as a geothermal centrefor industrial activities, corporateoffices, and research facilities.Perth, Australia: Aims to be thevery first geothermally-cooledcity, with commercialgeothermal-powered air-conditioning units.

Workersventing ageothermalpipeline.

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First osmosis power plant opens

The world’s ten leading geothermal cities

BUSINESS MATTERS

the global recovery. Thailand,Taiwan Province of China, HongKong SAR, and Malaysia allpublished official data showing thattheir economies returned to year-on-year growth in the fourth quarterof 2009. However, the EconomistIntelligence Unit (EIU) believes itwould be a mistake to take thissteady stream of good news as proofthat a rapid, sustainable recovery isunder way in the region. Recentdata were boosted by temporaryfactors, and it also remains unclearto what extent growth is dependenton unsustainable stimulusmeasures rather than autonomousdemand. (EIU)

� China has become the world’ssecond largest industrialmanufacturer, after the UnitedStates. These two countries andJapan produce half of the world’smanufacturing output. In spiteof China’s lead in terms of theabsolute amount of production,Japan is still the world’s mostindustrialized country, in termsof manufacturing value addedper capita, totalling nearlyUS$9,000 compared to US$700for China. (UNIDO)

�The sharp manufacturingrecession in Latin Americaduring 2009 will be followed by a

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emissions. A recent WorldEconomic Forum (WEF) reportfound that investment in 2009was remarkably resilient atUS$145 billion, down only 6%from US$155 billion in 2008. Thedecline would have probablybeen much bigger if it weren’t forthe billions that governmentsaround the globe poured intoeconomic stimulus programmes.However, according to the WEF,if the increase in global averagetemperatures is to be restrictedto 2°C, low-carbon energyinfrastructure will requireglobal annual investment ofaround US$500 billion perannum. While the next few yearsare likely to see recordinvestment activities, asignificant financing gap ofUS$350 billion still exists. (WEF)

Xianyang, China: Recently designated“China’s Official Geothermal City,”Xianyang is helping China meet itsgoal of 16% of energy use fromrenewables by 2020.Madrid, Spain: Six renewable energyprojects are underway, one of whichis a 8-MW geothermal districtheating project.Masdar City, Abu Dhabi: The city’sgoal is to function 100% onrenewable energy, half of it fromgeothermal resources.Klamath Falls, Oregon, USA:Geothermal energy has been used toheat buildings since the turn of the20th century, and is now used for avariety of purposes includingheating homes, schools, businesses,swimming pools, and for snow-meltsystems for sidewalks and roads. Boise, Idaho, USA: The Boise PublicWorks Department has the largest,direct use, geothermal system in theUnited States.

Source: The Geothermal EnergyAssociation, a trade associationcomposed of US companies whichsupport the expanded use ofgeothermal energy.

A fleet of 15 hydrogen-fuelled three-wheeler vehicles is about to begin servicein New Delhi, India. The auto-rickshawswill carry passengers from the PragatiMaidan metro station to a nearbyexhibition centre.

The Hy-Alfa vehicles, built by theIndian car manufacturer, Mahindra andMahindra, are powered by dedicatedhydrogen-fuelled 400cc internalcombustion engines, and will usecompressed natural gas-style fuel storagetanks. The hydrogen will be supplied byone of the largest merchant hydrogensuppliers in the world, Air Products.

The project, run by the Istanbul-basedInternational Centre for HydrogenEnergy Technologies (ICHET), togetherwith a consortium of companies, hasgreat potential for replication acrossIndia. Hydrogen is a by-product of India’schlor-alkali industry that at the momentis burnt (flared) because there is no usefor it.

Dr. Mathew Abraham, general managerat the Mahindra and Mahindra Researchand Development Centre, said, “The Hy-

Alfa is the first vehicle of its kind in theworld. It runs on nothing but compressedhydrogen gas, and is engineered to runwith absolutely zero emissions, whichmakes it a pleasure to drive on congestedcity roads. Hydrogen is, in fact, thetechnology and fuel of tomorrow, and isthe long term solution to pollution, energysecurity, and CO2 emission-relatedconcerns.”

Hydrogen fuel is expected to be a solution tothe problems created by the high nitrogenoxide emissions from the compressed naturalgas (CNG)-fuelled three-wheelers currently inuse in Indian cities.

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� B4E, the Business forEnvironment Global SummitApril 21-23, Seoul, Republic ofKorea. www.b4esummit.com

� World Geothermal Congressand Exhibition 2010 April 25-30,Bali, Indonesia.www.wgc2010.org/

� Ninth Responsible BusinessSummit May 4-5, London, UK.One of the largest CorporateSocial Responsibilityconferences in Europe.www.ethicalcorp.com/rbs

� Energy Efficiency Global Forumand Exposition 2010 May 10-12,Washington DC, USA.http://eeglobalforum.org/

� Bioenergy Markets Africa:Expanding sustainable bioenergyproduction May 11-13, Maputo,Mozambique. www.greenpowerconferences.co.uk

� Third MediterraneanSustainable Energy Summit 2010May 18-19, Athens, Greece.www.ftbusinessevents.com/medsustainableenergy

� The UN Global CompactLeaders Summit 2010, June 24-25, New York, USA.www.leaderssummit2010.org/

� Green Investments SummitJuly 12-15, Jakarta, Indonesia.www.alleventsgroup.com/gisindo2010/

� Fourth International SolarCities World CongressSeptember 16-19, Dezhou,China. www.chinasolarcity.cn

� World Renewable EnergyCongress XI and Exhibition2010 September 25-30,Abu Dhabi, United ArabEmirates. www.wrenuk.co.uk

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In 2009 the world energy consumption was 11.3billion tonnes of oil equivalent (toe). Energy con-sumption in industrialized countries has basi-cally been stable in the last 10 years, but in therest of the world it has been growing at approx-imately 5% per year. At this rate and based onpresent technologies, the world’s annual energyconsumption could reach 20 billion toe by theyear 2020. The consequences of such growth – approximately 80% of it originating from fossilfuels – could be disastrous for three reasons: � the depletion of fossil fuel resources; � geopolitical problems caused by access tosuch fuels, and � environmental problems, notably globalwarming.

Developing countries are witnessing a sub-stantial growth in their greenhouse gas emis-sions, mostly due to rapid industrializationand transport growth, but also due to the un-sustainable use of fuelwood and subsequentdeforestation.

Solving these problems implies tacklingtheir causes: a huge effort that encompasses ba-sically complementary actions and policies in

terms of energy efficiency (or energy conserva-tion) in order to obtain an equivalent well-beingby using fewer natural resources; renewable en-ergies, which can be used instead of fossil fuels;and new technological advances to improveenergy efficiency and utilize renewable energy.

Energy efficiency extends the life of finiteresources, reduces environmental impacts, se-cures supplies for the long-term, and fre-quently offers attractive economic returns.However, increasing access to energy servicesreally depends on an enhanced supply. Fortu-nately, this can be safely achieved by using awide variety of renewable sources, some ofwhich, such as hydropower and biomass, arealready well-developed. Most developingcountries are located in tropical areas wherethe existence of rivers and rain-fed, arable landprovide the conditions for these energy sec-tors to flourish. While competition with foodproduction and multiple water uses are im-portant issues, more often than not the prob-lems may be overestimated, and can be dealtwith through appropriate logistical and land-use planning.

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energyoptionsRenewable

With global energy consumption set to surge,greenhouse gas emissions increasing, and stocksof fossil fuels dwindling, JOSÉ GOLDEMBERGand OSWALDO LUCON look at the alternatives.

JOSÉ GOLDEMBERG is Professor atthe Institute of Electrotechnics andEnergy, University of São Paulo, Brazil.OSWALDO LUCON is a technicaladviser on energy for the São PauloState Environment Secretariat, Brazil.

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Attractive biomass options already exist.Sugar cane ethanol production (and associatedbagasse cogeneration) in Brazil, geothermalenergy in the Philippines, agricultural waste-toenergy in India, thermal solar energy in China,and improved wood-fuel cook stoves in someAfrican countries are some successful examples.

There are also newer renewable technolo-gies under development, with biomass havinggood prospects for rapid technological ad-vances, particularly in relation to improved useof agricultural wastes, municipal solid waste in-cineration, and the production of several typesof biodiesel. Several bioenergy transformationroutes using diverse types of biomass are pos-sible, from simple boilers for domestic heatingto integrated energy farms.

Although still in the research phase, secondgeneration biofuels, and advanced solar, marineand geothermal applications, may become eco-nomically viable in certain circumstances.

Wind and solarWind power production technology hasbecome highly sophisticated, with importantdevelopments in the areas of control, aerody-namics, and materials. Large systems can havehundreds of high-tech, large generators, eachwith a generation capacity of 5MW and bladesspanning more than 80 metres. Wind powermachinery costs have recently dropped signif-icantly, mainly because manufacturers in de-veloped countries have benefited fromgovernment support policies. As a consequence,the price of wind turbines for customers in de-veloping countries is also coming down.

Solar thermal energy has huge potential inthe developing world, but the relatively highstart-up costs, and the subsidies provided toconventional fossil-based sources, are barriersto a more rapid deployment. Simple applica-tions such as plastic solar collectors or cookstoves are initial steps frequently used indemonstration projects, especially in poorercountries. However, their take up has oftenbeen very limited, and the user regularly revertsto traditional sources of energy. More positively,China has moved steps ahead by subsidizingthe use of solar panels for water heating, whilein Brazil, the use of solar panels may negate theneed for large investments in the additionalpower production now required to supply theelectricity used at peak times. For example, solarpower can be used to produce electricity forwater heaters and other small appliances.

For small islands, mountain villages andother more remote communities, solar photo-voltaic systems offer good prospects. The tech-nology is ideal for small applications and certain

niches, as the power produced is enough to re-frigerate vaccines and medicines; preserve foodand fishing products; make small and microbusinesses viable; light houses, schools andmedical centres; extract and pump water fromwells; and power communication and enter-tainment systems. Solar may be one of the maintechnologies for future integration of decen-tralized energy systems.

BiofuelsSo far, bioethanol and biodiesel are the best bio-fuel options, followed in some cases by veg-etable oils. The Brazilian sugarcane ethanolprogramme produces fuel that is cost compet-itive in a free market, and has a positive energybalance of up to ten outputs to one unit of

input. For these reasons alone, it could be pro-moted as a fuel alternative in other countriesin the world. Concerns about the environmen-tal and social impacts of biofuels are being ad-dressed in a responsible manner – a responsedriven by the threat that technical trade barri-ers will be imposed as a result of consumerpressure. Meanwhile, there are high expecta-tions for second-generation biofuels, especiallycellulosic ethanol (produced from wood,grasses, or the non-edible parts of plants),which could promote a real clean energy revo-lution when achieving competitive costs.

DecouplingThe energy crisis of the late 1970s led to anenergy revolution when new technologies thatbecame commercially available at that timemade it possible to provide energy serviceswith a smaller energy input than would havebeen possible with the technologies then inwidespread use. This meant there could be adecoupling between GDP growth and energygrowth, and this did in fact take place in theindustrialized countries in the 1970s and 1980s.Using energy more efficiently, and switchingfrom fossil fuels to renewable energy sources,meant that economic growth, as measured byGDP growth rates, could continue, eventhough the growth in energy consumptionslowed. For example, the energy consumptionof the European Union is today 50% lowerthan it would have been if the measures takenin response to the 1973 oil crisis had not beenimplemented. Another more recent exampleis provided by China, which since 1990 has en-acted bold energy efficiency measures. WhileGDP has increased almost nine-fold, in thesame period, carbon emissions are only twoand half times greater.

In this context, developing countries cantoday take advantage of a great opportunity.Rather than replicating the economic develop-ment process of industrialized nations, whichwent through a phase that was dirty and waste-ful, and created an enormous legacy of envi-ronmental pollution, developing countries canleapfrog ahead by incorporating currently avail-able, modern, and efficient technologies in theearly stages of their development process.

The use of renewable energy resources isprogressing rapidly, and will probably repre-sent a very significant contribution to energyconsumption in the next few decades. A com-bination of energy efficiency, and renewableand emerging new technologies using biomass,wind, and solar energies, could sustain devel-opment for the majority of the human popula-tion over the course of the 21st century. �

� Renewable power capacities, 2008 (REN21, Renewables Global Status

Report: 2009 Update)

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Nearly one-third of global energy demandand almost 40% of worldwide CO2 emissionsare attributable to industrial activities. Thebulk of these CO2 emissions are related tothe large primary materials industries, suchas chemicals and petrochemicals, iron andsteel, cement, pulp and paper, and alu-minium. If we are to successfully combat cli-mate change, industry will need to transformthe way it uses energy, and radically reduceits CO2 emissions.

Over recent decades, industrial energy effi-ciency has improved, and CO2 intensity has de-clined substantially in many sectors. However,this progress has been more than offset bygrowing industrial production worldwide. Asa result, total industrial energy consumptionand CO2 emissions have continued to rise.Over the next 40 years, demand for industrialmaterials in most sectors is expected to double

or triple. Projections of future energy use andemissions based on current technologies showthat without decisive action, these trends willcontinue. This path is not sustainable.

Making substantial cuts in industrial CO2emissions will require the widespread adop-tion of current best available technologies(BAT), and the development and deploymentof a range of new technologies. This technol-ogy transition is urgent; industrial emissionsmust peak in the coming decade if the worstimpacts of climate change are to be avoided.Industry and governments will need to worktogether to research, develop, demonstrate,and deploy the promising new technologiesthat have already been identified, and also to

find and advance new processes that will allowfor the CO2-free production of industrial materials in the longer term.

Furthermore, such emissions reductionswill only be possible if all the regions of theworld contribute. Action in OECD countriesalone, which represent 33% of current globalindustrial CO2 emissions, will not be sufficientto make the necessary reductions. Industrialproduction will continue to grow most stronglyin non-OECD countries so that by 2050, if nofurther action is taken, they will account for80% of global industrial CO2 emissions.

Industry exhibits a number of characteris-tics that set it apart from other end-use sec-tors, and these need to be taken into accountwhen designing energy and climate policiesfor the sector. First, while significant energyefficiency potentials remain, they are smallerthan in the building or transport sectors.

Drawing on the new International Energy Agency publication, EnergyTechnology Transitions for Industry: Strategies for the Next Industrial Revolution,NOBUO TANAKA looks at the technologies for reducing industrial CO2emissions and the policies that are needed to ensure their widespread use.

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NOBUO TANAKA is theExecutive Director ofthe International EnergyAgency (IEA)

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Policies should therefore promote realisticlevels of energy efficiency improvement andCO2 reduction, and ensure, where possible,flexibility in the way these can be achieved. Sec-ondly, many industries compete in global orregional markets, and so the introduction ofpolicies that impose a cost on CO2 emissionsin some regions, but not others, risks damagingcompetitiveness and may lead to carbon leak-age – in other words, industries relocating toregions with lesser carbon restrictions. Whilethere is little, if any, evidence of such effects todate, this may become a significant problem ifCO2 prices rise substantially in the future.Thirdly, many industrial sectors have theknowledge, technology access, and financingpossibilities to reduce their own CO2 emis-sions if governments provide a stable policyframework that will create clear, predictable,long-term economic incentives for the use ofnew efficient and low-carbon technologies.

The implementation of current BAT couldreduce industrial energy use by between 20% and30%, and should be a priority in the short term.But this will be nowhere near enough to achieveabsolute reductions in CO2 emission levels, asproduction is expected to double or triple inmany sectors. Continued improvements inenergy efficiency offer the largest and least ex-pensive way of achieving CO2 savings over theperiod to 2050. Energy efficiency gains will needto increase to 1.3% per year, a rate that will re-quire the development of new energy-efficient technologies. Many new technologieswhich can support such an outcome, for exam-ple smelt reduction, new separation membranes,black liquor and biomass gasification, and ad-vanced cogeneration, are currently being devel-oped, demonstrated, and adopted by industry.

New low-carbon fuels and technologies willalso be needed, with a smaller but importantcontribution from increased recycling andenergy recovery. The use of biomass and elec-tricity as CO2-free energy carriers will be sig-nificant. While the technologies required areoften sector-specific, the development and de-ployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS)will be critical for achieving deep emissionsreductions, particularly in the iron and steel,and cement sectors.

Additional research, development, anddemonstration are needed to develop break-through process technologies that allow forthe CO2-free production of materials, and toadvance understanding of system approaches,such as the optimization of life-cycles throughrecycling and using more efficient materials.These longer-term options will be needed inthe second half of this century to ensure sus-

tainability of industrial processes to the endof the century, and beyond.

Technology development is fraught withuncertainties. Some of the technologies iden-tified may never come to fruition, but futureresearch may also deliver new technologiesor breakthroughs that are not currently fore-seen. A portfolio approach can help to dealwith this uncertainty.

CO2 emissions reductions will be neededacross the whole of industry, but action is par-ticularly crucial in the five most energy-

intensive sectors: iron and steel, cement,chemicals and petrochemicals, pulp and paper,and aluminium. Together, these sectors cur-rently account for 75% of total direct CO2emissions from industry, and the applicationof current BAT, together with the developmentand deployment of promising new technolo-gies, will be required in order to significantlyreduce energy use and CO2 emissions.

Iron and steelThe worldwide use of current BAT could de-liver energy savings of about 20% of today’sconsumption. Given the limited efficiency po-tential inherent in existing technologies, newtechnologies such as smelt reduction will beneeded. Fuel switching can also help to reduceemissions. CCS is an important option thatwould allow the sector to achieve deep reduc-tions in emissions in the future. Large-scaleCO2 capture pilot projects at iron and steelplants must be urgently developed in order tobetter understand the cost and performanceof different CO2 capture methods.

CementReducing CO2 emissions in this sector is verychallenging owing to high process emissionsrelated to the production of clinker, the maincomponent in cement. Improving energy effi-ciency at existing plants, investing in BAT fornew plants, and increasing the use of alterna-tive fuels and clinker substitutes could reducecurrent energy use by 21%, but this will not beenough to achieve net emissions reductions inthe future. New technologies should be devel-oped and implemented, particularly in the ap-plication of CCS to cement production.

Chemicals and petrochemicalsThe full application of best practice technol-ogy in chemical processes could achieveenergy savings of approximately 15%. Addi-tional measures such as process intensifica-tion and process integration, the greater useof combined heat and power, and life-cycle op-timization by recycling and energy recoveryfrom post-consumer plastic waste, could savemore final energy. However, there are impor-tant barriers which constrain the exploitationof this theoretical potential. To achieve futureCO2 emissions reductions in the sector, arange of new technologies must be developed.

Pulp and paperSignificant potential exists in many countriesto increase energy efficiency and reduce CO2emissions in this sector. A transition to cur-rent BAT could save up to 25% of energy used

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today. Reducing emissions in the sector willrequire additional improvements in effi-ciency, fuel switching to biomass, and the in-creased use of combined heat and power.Promising new technologies such as blackliquor gasification, lignin removal, biomassgasification, and CCS, will also be needed toachieve significant emissions reductions.

AluminiumMost of the energy consumed in the alu-minium industry is in the form of electricityused for smelting. The impact of imple-menting BAT is limited, offering the poten-tial to reduce energy use by up to 12%compared with current levels. Important op-tions include reducing heat losses in refiner-ies, improving process controls, and reducingheat losses and the electricity used insmelters. In the longer-term, moving towardsthe use of zero-carbon electricity in smeltersis the single largest opportunity for long-term CO2 emissions reduction.

***The world’s industry emissions in 2050 can

only be reduced by 21% compared to today’slevels (industry’s contribution to a halving ofglobal emissions) if all regions significantlyreduce their CO2 intensity. In a ‘business-as-usual’ scenario, where there is no change inpolicy, emissions are expected to continuerising in all regions to 2050. China’s emissionswill continue to rise rapidly in the next twentyyears, but then will rise only moderately as thecountry’s consumption of the most CO2-in-tensive products, such as cement and iron andsteel, begins to level off after 2030. As domes-tic consumption feeds demand, India’s indus-trial CO2 emissions will grow the most of allcountries. In other developing countries inAsia, Africa, and the Middle East, current levelsof industrial development are significantlybelow current levels, and industrial produc-tion is expected to grow at the fastest rates.These three regions will account for 24% oftotal global industry emissions by 2050, significantly surpassing total OECD industryemissions. If global industry is to achieve significant reductions in emissions, effort willbe required in these regions to reduce theCO2 intensity of industrial production, andthey will need support for technology transferand deployment.

Bringing about the technology transitionneeded to reduce emissions in industry willnot be easy. It will require both a step change inpolicy implementation by governments, andunprecedented investment in best practicesand new technologies by industry. Engaging

developing countries and their industries inthis transition will also be vital, since most ofthe future growth in industrial production, andtherefore CO2 emissions, will happen in coun-tries outside of the OECD region.

Given these considerations, a global systemof emissions trading may eventually be a cru-cial policy instrument for promoting CO2abatement in industry. However, a worldwidecarbon market is unlikely to emerge immedi-ately and so, in the short to medium term, in-ternational agreements covering some of themain energy-intensive sectors might be a prac-tical first step in stimulating the deploymentof new technologies, while addressing con-cerns about competitiveness and carbon leak-age. Meanwhile, national energy efficiency andCO2 policies, involving standards, incentivesand regulatory reform (including the removalof energy price subsidies), which address spe-cific sectors or particular barriers, will continueto be necessary. Gaining public acceptance forcertain new technologies may also be impor-tant to their widespread deployment.

To complement policies that generatemarket pull, many new technologies will needgovernment support while in the research, de-velopment, and demonstration (RD&D)phases before they become commerciallyviable. There is an urgent need for a major ac-celeration of RD&D in breakthrough tech-nologies that have the potential to changeindustrial energy use or reduce greenhousegas emissions. Support for demonstrationprojects will be particularly important. Thiswill require greater international collabora-tion, and will need to include mechanisms tofacilitate the transfer and deployment of low-carbon technologies in developing countries.

A number of regional and internationalindustrial associations are already examininghow their members might rise to the chal-lenge posed by climate change. I welcomethese efforts and reaffirm that the Interna-tional Energy Agency (IEA) is looking to playits part. For instance, the IEA has been askedby the G8 to develop roadmaps for the mostimportant low-carbon technologies. As partof this activity we have recently completed, to-gether with the Cement Sustainability Initia-tive of the World Business Council forSustainable Development, a cement sectorroadmap. We would welcome the opportunityto replicate this activity with other sectors andto help show the way to the next industrialrevolution. Industrial production growthmust be developed in a sustainable way.Countries and industry should make greengrowth their priority. �

“Industry andgovernments will need towork together to research,develop, demonstrate anddeploy the promising newtechnologies that havealready been identified”

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Energy access is widely regarded as the ‘missing’Millenium Development Goal. It will create the opportunities for people across the world to step out of the poverty trap.KANDEH K. YUMKELLA andLEENA SRIVASTAVA argue that now is the time to prioritizeenergy access in order to promoteeconomic development.

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Large parts of humanity – billions of people – live withoutaccess to modern energy services. These are fundamentalservices that most of us take for granted, like light, fuel forheating and cooking, and mechanical power. Despite theefforts of many committed people, working on excellentprogrammes, about 1.5 billion people still don’t have accessto electricity, and around 2.5 billion people rely on traditionalbiomass as their primary source of energy – a clearly unsus-tainable position. It is widely accepted that this lack of accessto affordable, reliable, energy services is a fundamental hin-drance to human, social, and economic development – andis thus a major impediment to achieving the MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDGs). The issue is also a stark illus-tration of the deep inequity that exists between the rich and

poor. Roughly, the poorer three-quarters of the world’s pop-ulation use only 10% of the world’s energy. The rich coun-tries aim for a secure, environmentally acceptable, andaffordable energy supply – but what about the billions with-out access?

The issue is not abstract for either of us. We have both wit-nessed it in our own countries: Sierra Leone and India. A fewsuccess stories do exist – countries such as China haveimproved the access for their citizens substantially in the lastdecades, but all across sub-Saharan Africa, and in parts ofAsia, people are living without basic energy services. Thedemand for energy in these regions is expected to grow dra-matically, with increases in population and improvementsin living standards adding to the scale of the challenges. It is

Bamako, Mali: Anadult literacy eveningclass illuminated by abulb powered by acar battery.

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really quite stunning to realize that, if ‘business as usual’ con-ditions are maintained, over the next decades the total num-ber of people without access to modern energy services willnot decrease. Current efforts are insufficient in scale andscope, and attempting to address the issue in the same waythat we have in the past is clearly not remotely adequate.

Energy for developmentEnergy services have an effect on productivity, health, edu-cation, safe water, and communication services. Therefore, itis no surprise that access to energy has a strong correlationto social and economic development indices (e.g. the HumanDevelopment Index, life expectancy at birth, infant mortal-ity rate, maternal mortality, and GDP per capita).

The UN system has been working on energy access issuesfor decades. In 2005, UN-Energy, the UN’s inter-agencymechanism for energy issues, considered the link betweenenergy and the MDGs, and reminded us that: �Energy services, such as lighting, heating, cooking, motivepower, mechanical power, transport and telecommunica-tions, are essential for socio-economic development, sincethey yield social benefits, and support income and employ-ment generation.� Reforms to the energy sector should protect the poor,especially the 1.1 billion people who live on less than US$1per day, and should take gender inequalities into account byrecognizing that the majority of the poor are women.

In 2007, the UNDP reviewed a large number of nationalMDG reports to assess the extent to which energy issueswere included. The findings revealed the need for a morecoherent and focused approach to energy in the 2010 MDGreview process. For example:�About a quarter of the reports offered considerable cov-erage of energy issues, including a more nuanced analysis ofthe country’s energy situation, but about one-third of thereports only had a moderate amount of information on�

“Energy access must moveup the political anddevelopment agendas tobecome a central priority”

KANDEH K. YUMKELLA is theDirector-General of the UnitedNations Industrial DevelopmentOrganization. Since August 2007, hehas served as Chair of UN-Energy,the inter-agency mechanism tocoordinate energy-related issueswithin the UN system. He is also Chair of UNSecretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Advisory Group onEnergy and Climate Change consisting of businessleaders and experts.

LEENA SRIVASTAVA is the ExecutiveDirector of The Energy andResources Institute (TERI), anindependent, not-for-profit,research institution, based in NewDelhi, and working in the areas ofenergy, environment, and

sustainable development. She was the lead authorfor the Third Assessment Report of theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

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energy (i.e. a paragraph or more, offering some statisticsor baseline energy information), and some 42% of reportscontained little or no mention of energy at all.� The most popular energy topics discussed were energyefficiency and energy use as a contributor to air pollution.The reports from African countries, however, most often dis-cussed energy in the context of wood-fuel use and defor-estation issues.

The obstacles to energy access are well known. These bar-riers, while complex, can be overcome, and internationalcooperation can help this process. What cannot be over-stressed is that there are no fundamental technical barriers:we know how to build power systems, we know how todesign good cooking stoves, and we know how to meetenergy demand efficiently. What is required is a political pri-oritization. Energy access must move up the political anddevelopment agendas to become a central priority.

Equally important is a clear understanding that localcommunities must be deeply involved in the planning, exe-cution, and end-use of energy services. Energy access inter-ventions must be guided by an awareness of local commu-nities’ unique situations and needs.

Getting business on boardThe bulk of the efforts to improve energy access have, natu-rally, focused on parts of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Thereare decades of experience with many poorly designed orimplemented programmes, but some successful modelshave emerged, including both public efforts such as thosecarried out by the international financial institutions andUN agencies, and the delivery of related funding and servicesby NGOs and private sector companies, such as India’s SolarElectric Light Company.

Many global campaigns are also starting to address theissue. One of these is the Lighting a Billion Lives campaignwhich aims to bring light into the lives of one billion ruralpeople by replacing kerosene and paraffin lanterns withsolar lanterns. This campaign, which was launched in

FIGURE 1: Countries with energy access targets (UNDP, 2009)

All developing countries (total number of countries: 140)

Electricity 68Modern fuels 16

Improved cooking stoves 11Mechanical power 5

Modern fuels 12Improved cooking stoves 7

Mechanical power 5

Sub-Saharan Africa (total number of countries: 45)

February 2008, illustrates the opportunities to mobilizeindustry participation in development impacts. About 15months after the campaign was inaugurated, and withnearly 100 villages across India involved, big industry rec-ognized the market opportunity. Leading manufacturersof components and assemblers of the final product – solarlanterns – came forward to partner The Energy andResources Institute (TERI) in this initiative. The key driv-ers for this partnership were: � The resolve to implement the initiative, and the confi-dence thereby generated. �The offsetting of the perceived small and dispersed scaleof the effort by the promise of large volume.�The knowledge generated from the constantly evolving,context-specific business models (fee-for-service with cap-ital costs progressively moving from grant, to part-equity, toloan financing, and leveraging other development pro-grammes) and the widening partnership base (industry,donors, governments, financial institutions, universities,mass media etc.).�The creation of a rural entrepreneurship base founded onthis initiative but with a capacity to evolve into related devel-opment businesses.

Other large ongoing campaigns include: � Lighting Africa, a World Bank Group initiative aiming toprovide up to 250 million people in sub-Saharan Africa withaccess to non-fossil fuel-based, low cost, safe, and reliablelighting products, with associated basic energy services, bythe year 2030.�Energy Poverty Action, a joint initiative of the World Business

�

LDCs (total number of countries: 50)

Electricity 25Modern fuels 8Improved cooking stoves 4

Mechanical power 0

Electricity 35

FIGURE 2: Investment requirements to 2030 (IEA, 2009)

Additional generation

Additional investment

Distribution

Transmission

Generation

890 TWh

$803billion(2008)

Mini-grid 27%

Mini-grid 27%

Isolated off-grid 4%

Isolated off-grid 11%

Grid connected*69%

Urban Grid

Rural Grid

Grid connected*62%

* Covers generation, transmission, and distribution for both urban and rural grids

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Council for Sustainable Development, the World EnergyCouncil, and the World Economic Forum, aiming to demon-strate business-oriented approaches to modern energy pro-vision at community level which are scaleable, replicable, andcommercially and environmentally sustainable.

All of these programmes and campaigns will be betterimplemented if they are grounded in national policies.Those of us working in international organizations need tosupport national and regional plans and targets. A recentUNDP paper showed that 68 developing countries have elec-tricity targets (Fig. 1), but in order to meet their targets, thesecountries will require financial support, capacity develop-ment, and better regulation and governance structures.

Money mattersThe financial implications of universal energy access arehuge, and are comprehensively described in the World EnergyOutlook 2009, published by the International Energy Agency(IEA). The agency looked at a specific universal energy (elec-tricity) access scenario, and the results showed the need foraround US$800 billion over the next two decades (Fig. 2).This figure equates to approximately US$40 billion per year

over the period – or around 10% of the total investment inthe energy sector each year (according to the IEA referencecase). It is roughly in line with experiences from Brazil andSouth Africa that show that about US$2,000 per householdis required. While the bulk of the investment in the IEA sce-nario goes to grid extensions and grid-tied generation, thereis a large role for mini-grids (but not mini-financing!) toserve rural populations.

Overall, the existing macro investment calculations can-not reflect the varied and complex investment requirementsand environments. In addition, calculating this figure forelectricity is a simpler task than doing so for modern fuels(where there are more substitutability issues, cultural andgender issues, etc.). It bears repeating that this issue willrequire a large suite of financial mechanisms with a focus onaddressing a large array of real and perceived risks.

More than just a lightIt is essential to remember that providing reliable and secureenergy services to those currently without access is not sim-ply about supplying electricity for lighting or improved cook-ing stoves. To promote economic development and growth,these energy services need to be put to productive uses thatpositively affect livelihoods, providing power for industry,improving health care and education, and improving trans-portation. Furthermore, simply supplying the power sourcewill be insufficient if the necessary equipment and appliancesare not deployed. Finally, sustainable energy access willrequire a model that generates local revenues to pay for mod-ern energy services. Electricity not only provides lighting thatpermits children to study at night, it allows for the refriger-ation of perishable agricultural products, and increased valueadded through the first steps of industrialization.

Experience has repeatedly shown that subsidy schemescannot be sustained over the long-term. The ultimate goalmust be a market-based approach. However, many energymarkets are distorted, and political intervention is common.For example, in India, certain states provide free electricityto farmers. This has resulted in huge government deficits,wastage of scarce groundwater resources on inefficient irri-gation, and a lack of funding for enhanced electrification,upgrading of power plants, and improvement of transmis-sion and electricity grids elsewhere. Energy subsidies areclearly not the optimal way to solve access problems.

It is clear that access to energy is about more than quan-tity. Quality is essential. This is true for both electricity andfuels. As an example, high costs and unreliable electricityservice constrain economic activity in many countries, andconstitute a severe obstacle to business operation andgrowth. The World Bank indicators (Fig. 3) show the scale ofthe issue in terms of connection times, outages, the value oflost output, and the need for onsite generation.

High transaction and unit investment costs constrainservice provision in rural areas because of low demand anddispersed populations. Utilities that are commercially andfinancially weak cannot drive access expansion of the net-work, but nevertheless occupy a monopoly position in manycountries. South Africa is a typical case, where very low elec-tricity prices have resulted in under-investment, followed �

FIGURE 3: Impacts of unreliable infrastructure(World Bank, 2007)

Service problem: Electricity

Delay in obtaining electricity connection (days)

Sub-Saharan Africa 79.9 days

Developing countries 27.5 days

6.1% 4.4%

Electrical outages (days per year)

Value of lost output due to electrical outages(percent of turnover)

Firms maintaining own generation equipment(percent of total)

Sub-Saharan Africa 90.9 days

Sub-Saharan Africa

Developing countries 28.7 days

Developing countries

47.5% 31.8%Sub-Saharan Africa Developing countries

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by increasingly frequent blackouts. Instead of regulatingprices, governments should focus on enabling infrastructure,market liberalization, and a viable long-term investment cli-mate. Instead of price subsidies for all, the poorest membersof society without energy access should be helped throughcapacity building, technology access, and direct investments.

The climate is changingThe Fourth (and most recent – 2007) Assessment Report ofthe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)clearly brought out the relationship between climate changeand sustainable development. It also recognized the fact thatclimate change could become an impediment to achievingthe Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, it fellshort of closing the loop by not explicitly recognizing thelinkage with energy access. This is despite the fact that energy(access) has been widely acknowledged as the underlyingMDG, or the ‘missing MDG’.

The key to addressing both the sustainable developmentand climate change needs of the world, therefore, may be to:(i) set a quantitative goal for energy access, and (ii) explore the opportunities that would align the challengeof providing energy access more closely with the cleanenergy development paths of the future.

Should an acceptable goal for energy access reflect theargument of equity, or merely the survival needs of the poor?If the purpose of prioritizing energy access is to mobilizedevelopment funds, then the equity argument would nothold. However, to set a goal that would provide energy accessat a level that fails to create the opportunities for stepping outof the poverty trap would not be acceptable either. A mini-mum target, therefore, could be to estimate the energyrequirements for meeting the MDGs. Whatever the final tar-get, the purpose of target-setting may be primarily for thepurpose of investment planning and sourcing of develop-ment funds. In reality, ensuring physical access to energyservices, at price levels that would make the services afford-able, may be a more rational approach to adopt.

The dividing lines between rich and poor, between urbanand rural, between developed and developing have beendrawn for so long that a conscious effort is now needed toevaluate the costs and benefits of bridging the technologicaldivides between these categories in the larger interests ofglobal efficiency and climate protection. The fear, however,is that the global community is focused largely on the cur-rent fossil energy consumers and greenhouse gas (GHG)emitters. Those who are not part of the immediate problemrisk being left out of any emerging solutions. Ensuring low-carbon sustainable energy access is not merely an opportu-nity to avoid a lock-in to future emission paths by nearly halfof the world’s population. It is also a major contributor tobuilding adaptive capacity in the most vulnerable popula-tions through the support it provides to all MDGs. If GHGmitigation does not justify much-needed attention to thechallenge of energy access, then climate negotiations mustrecognize the criticality of energy for the adaptation effort.Ideally, given the cross-cutting positive impact of ensuringa sustainable energy access, dedicated funds must be setaside to address this key concern of developing countries.

�

A mosque issilhouetted next topower lines thathave been hackedinto to stealelectricity. NewDelhi, India.

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A new directionUNIDO together with its partners holds a major energy con-ference every two years. At the last one, in Austria, in 2009, theissue of energy access was prioritized, and the participantsidentified the following needs:� International recognition and prioritization of the accessissue.�A robust international framework that clearly articulatesan energy access target.�A detailed implementation roadmap, with interim targetsand milestones. �A mechanism for building in-country capacity and capa-bility across political, governmental, technological, financial,and operational sectors.�A mechanism for enhancing the investment and financ-ing toward universal access.

These recommendations can be further refined and, asthe Ghanaian energy expert, Abeeku Brew-Hammond,writes, we can identify some key areas for action:�Mobilizing domestic financial resources and making bet-ter use of external flows.�Emphasizing productive uses and income generation.�Drawing on the full range of resources and technologies.� Increasing the number of actors and developing effectiveinstitutions.�Developing innovative policies.� Driving implementation through the application ofrobust monitoring and verification.

Looking at the challenges at a regional level, the Forum ofEnergy Ministers in Africa in 2007 stated: “To turn around theperformance of the power sector there are three major chal-lenges to be addressed – replacing existing project wish listswith bankable projects; establishing regulatory policies thatimprove country investment attractiveness; and establishinginstitutions that have clear roles and are appropriatelyresourced.” In order to coherently implement some or all ofthese findings, a useful first step may be to design and test anew energy access indicator – this work is just beginning.

Finally, urgent and adequate attention needs to be paid toapplying the right business models, creating the decision-making and implementation capacities, and establishingsupportive policy/regulatory frameworks for ensuring thattechnological leapfrogging and institutional re-positioninghappen at a rapid pace. The information and telecommuni-cations sectors demonstrated an unanticipated explosion ofdemand in the developing countries, and a technologicalleapfrogging from a situation of no access to state-of-the-artcommunications. This can be used as a precedent for mod-ern energy systems as well. We are convinced that we canaccomplish this task, and at the same time support strongnew green economies – not doing so is not an option. Thescale of the issue, like poverty itself, is enormous, and some-times daunting to address. But access to energy may be thebest entry-point for effectively tackling the problem in theshort-term. Its importance is widely recognized. Now wemust use this consensus to build on the effective models thatexist, and create new ways to unlock the opportunities. �The authors would like to acknowledge the support for this article ofMorgan Bazilian, energy advisor at UNIDO.

“To promote economicdevelopment and growth,energy services need to beput to productive uses thatpositively affect livelihoods –providing power for industry,improving health care andeducation, and improvingtransportation”

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Dipal Barua has a vision. He sees his home-land becoming one of the world’s first “solarnations”. He believes solar and other renew-able energies can transform the lives of the 75million Bangladeshis who have no access toelectricity. To achieve this transformation, hewants to train 100,000 women entrepreneursto set up their own renewable energy busi-nesses by the year 2015. If Dipal Barua has hisway, Bangladesh will, he says, “become a rolemodel for 1.6 billion energy-starved people allover the world”.

To realize this vision, the 55-year old Baruahas recently founded the Bright Green EnergyFoundation. It’s the latest step in an illustriouscareer working to bring sustainable develop-ment to the people of rural Bangladesh. Baruawas one of the founding members of theGrameen Bank, the Nobel prize-winning,micro-finance and community developmentbank that was launched in his home village ofJobra in 1976.

“I have devoted most of my life to findingsustainable, market-based solutions to thesocial and economic problems faced by ruralpeople”, says Barua. “I came to realize that alack of access to efficient energy sources wasone of the major obstacles to their develop-ment. More than 70% of my country’s ruralpopulation has to depend on primitive energysources. This limits people’s economic op-portunities and damages their health.”

In 1996, Barua founded Grameen Shakti, anon-profit organization with a mission to pro-mote, develop, and supply renewable energy.

As managing director, Barua builtGrameen Shakti into one of the largest andfastest-growing renewable energy companiesin the world. But, as he recalls, attempts tomarket photovoltaic solar home systems onaffordable terms initially faced numerous ob-stacles. “No enabling environment existed for

spreading renewable energy technologies inrural areas. People had no awareness, costswere high, technical knowledge was low, andthere was no infrastructure.”

“We had to create goodwill and gain thetrust of the rural people. We trained our engi-neers to be ‘social engineers’ who went fromdoor-to-door to demonstrate the effectivenessof renewable energy. We trained local youthas technicians to ensure that people would

have efficient and free after-sales service righton their doorstep.”

In a country where approximately 40% ofthe population lives on less than US$1.25 aday, the cost of even the most basic solar homesystem – 15,000 Bangladeshi Taka (US$217) –was daunting for many rural households.Barua remembers trying to convince poten-tial customers to invest in solar power sys-tems. “I told people that for the cost of thekerosene they were buying to light theirhomes, they could buy a solar home systemthat would last for 20 years or more.”

Grameen Shakti received a huge boost in2002 when low-interest loans from the WorldBank and the Global Environment Fund en-abled the organization to begin scaling-up its

provision of micro-finance agreements. Themost popular of a number of options to pur-chase a solar home system on preferentialterms proved to be one with a down-paymentof 15% and monthly repayments of the re-mainder over three years.

By the end of 2009, over 300,000 solarhome systems had been installed, bringingelectricity to over two million people.

“The solar home system plays a very effec-tive role in bringing ‘green’ electricity to ruralhouseholds. Better lighting facilitates chil-dren’s education and helps women to workand cook”, says Barua. “It also enables womento take part in income-generating activitiesafter dark.”

And, as Barua points out, the impact onincomes is not restricted to households.“Shops and small businesses have also in-stalled solar home systems in order to stayopen after sunset.”

In recent years Grameen Shakti diversified,starting a biogas programme to provide cook-ing gas, electricity, and organic fertilizer, and animproved cooking stove programme to reduceindoor air pollution and the amount of woodneeded for cooking fuel. By the end of 2009,more than 7,000 small biogas plants and 40,000improved cooking stoves had been installed.

Key to Grameen Shakti’s success was the de-liberate drive to involve women in both thetake-up of renewable energy, and the installa-tion and servicing of the energy systems. AsBarua remarks, “Women are the main victimsof the energy crisis. They are the ones whosuffer most from indoor air pollution, drudgery,and a lack of time because of the onerous tasksof wood-gathering and cooking. We believe thatwomen should be transformed from passivevictims into active forces of good to bringchanges in their lives and the communities inwhich they live.”

DIPAL BARUA is implementingrenewable energy solutions thatempower women, create jobs,facilitate rural development,and protect the environment.

WomenentrepreneurstransformingBangladesh

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At over 40 technology centres based in ruralareas, and managed mostly by female engineers,women undergo an initial 15-day course to learnhow to assemble charge controllers and mobilephone chargers, and to install and maintainsolar home systems. With further training, theyare able to repair the systems. Over 1,000women technicians have come through theprogramme, and they have been instrumentalin the rapid take-up of the solar power systems.

For Barua, the success of the women techni-cians programme is one of his most satisfyingachievements. “When we started this pro-gramme, we were not sure whether we wouldbe able to attract enough rural women orwhether they would be able to operate inde-pendently. But we trained more than 1,000

women who have developed their self-confi-dence and now have the opportunity to earn anincome of around US$150 a month. Theseyoung women from this most conservative ofsocieties can leave home and operate inde-pendently as technicians – this was unimagin-able only a few years ago.”

In 2009 Dipal Barua won the Abu Dhabi gov-ernment’s Zayed Future Energy Prize in recog-nition of his work to bring renewable energytechnologies to rural people. Part of the prizewas an award of US$1.5 million, and Barua hasused this money to start the Bright GreenEnergy Foundation.

He plans to build on Grameen Shakti’s suc-cess, and wants to train 100,000 women, so thatthey can establish their own renewable energy

businesses. “My aim is to provide technical andfinancial assistance to rural women so they canbecome ‘green’ entrepreneurs.”

Barua says the Foundation will take renew-able energy technologies to the next level of de-velopment. “We envisage a future where everyhousehold and business in Bangladesh willhave access to environmentally-friendly andpollution-free energy at an affordable cost.”

He concludes, “If I succeed, Bangladesh willbecome the land of renewable energy tech-nologies, as it is now the land of micro-credit –a source of inspiration for all. This would be avery positive demonstration of what renewableenergy can do for disadvantaged people aroundthe whole world.”� Interview by Charles Arthur, UNIDO

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Opposite: Bangladeshiwomen learning toassemble and installsolar power systems.

Main photo: Solarentrepreneur in action.

Photos courtesy of theAshden Awards.

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Look at this satellite image of our world atnight. Massive veins of light shoot fromurban centres and sprawl across the world’swealthiest regions, creating vibrant grids ofeconomic activity. Even though the countriesare not colour-coded with the light pastels ofa classroom political map, the two-tone satel-lite image tells a more important story aboutaccess – access to healthcare, access to capital,access to information, and particularly, accessto power.

On the whole, bright lights correlate withprosperity founded on energy-intensiveeconomic growth. The world’s three largesteconomic blocks, Western Europe, theUnited States, and Japan, outshine theirneighbours in consistency and intensity, andsimilarly provide some of the world’s longestlife expectancies. The bulk of Africa andcentral Asia remain shrouded in darkness.The contrast that divides an illuminatedRepublic of Korea from its northern neigh-bour along the 58th parallel starkly reflectsthe wealth and opportunity disparitiesbetween the two countries.

At the same time, industrialization hashistorically been accompanied by severeenvironmental costs, not least the costs ofcarbon. However, the impact of carbon-based energy production is not limited toglobal climate change. We shouldn’t forgetlocalized environmental damage caused bythe process of production of carbon-basedelectricity, such as the pollution of groundwater and soil, or population displacement,or the health damage caused by concentratedambient air particles in industrial centres.

This is the challenge of our generation.Billions of voices around the world demandgreater access to energy, while many otherswisely insist that we respect our one and onlynatural environment. Both goals are legiti-mate, and neither should yield.

The developmental challenges were nodifferent in China, where Suntech Power wasborn nearly a decade ago. While China’s star-tling economic growth represents one of thegreat humanitarian achievements in humanhistory, bringing hundreds of millions ofpeople out of poverty in just a few decades, ithas also brought environmental challenges.After receiving a Ph.D. from the University ofNew South Wales (UNSW) in Australia, Ireturned to my hometown of Yangzhong, anisland that rests in the cradle of the YangtzeRiver, to find the lands of my youth sufferingfrom the environmental side effects ofindustrialization.

DR. ZHENGRONG SHI isthe founder and CEO ofSuntech Power, a worldwideleader in innovative solarenergy solutions

Everywhereunder

thesun

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�

The government of Wuxi, in JiangsuProvince, was eager to take a leadership role tocreate solutions that promoted equitableeconomic growth without ravaging our planetand its resources. Thus, with US$6 million inbacking facilitated by the local governmentand local businesses, and with the support oflike-minded friends and colleagues from theUNSW, I founded Suntech Power. With acombination of new and second-hand equip-ment, and a strong belief in our vision, wemanaged to put together a 10MW capacitysolar production facility, which at the time wasnot insignificant.

Three years later, in December 2005, on theheels of booming global demand for solarproducts, Suntech Power became the first

relationships with leading solar research insti-tutions, such as the UNSW in Australia. Thishas enabled us to continually push the tech-nology envelope, and repeatedly break recordsfor high efficiency panels. In addition, ourfocus on minimizing production coststhrough semi-automated manufacturingprocesses and home-grown technology hasallowed us to keep our promise of the highestquality products at a reasonable price.

As electricity from solar sources reaches gridparity with more carbon-based electricitysources in more markets, we are expecting to bepart of an energy revolution that will supportlong-term sustainable growth in developingand developed markets around the world.

Solar power has a unique opportunity inundeveloped and developing regions, particu-larly those with over-burdened and/or limitedelectricity grids. Often, the price of running

private China-based company to list on theNew York Stock Exchange. Our meteoricgrowth was made possible, not only by start-upsupport in China, but by government incen-tives in the world’s wealthiest regions, includ-ing Germany, Japan, and California, USA. Theinternational movement to find alternativeenergy sources gained momentum as govern-ments recognized the need to diversify energysources due to the scarcity of fossil fuels andthe rising cost of extraction; to establishenergy independence, to ensure consistent,long-term energy supply; and to find solutionsto mitigate man-made global warming.

Against this backdrop, our ability to sustaingrowth at almost 100% a year until 2008,compete with established competitors, andbecome the largest producer of crystalline sili-con solar panels, was essentially based on ourcommitment to innovation and quality. Sinceinception, we have steadily built what is nowone of the world’s largest solar research teams,with over 350 R&D professionals based inChina, Australia, Germany, and Japan.Furthermore, we have nurtured collaborative

A global view of theEarth at night, compiledfrom over 400 satelliteimages. Photo: NASA

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power lines to remote villages, communi-cation towers, medical clinics, schools, or waterpumps, far exceeds the price of installing solarpower systems. In many markets it alreadycosts more to fire-up a diesel generator than toinstall a clean and quiet solar power systemwith a similar power output. In the future, thedelivery of electrical power will be character-ized not only by centralized production anddistribution, but also by the emergence ofindependent micro-grids powered by renew-able energy technology.

Business opportunities are emerging forinnovative and entrepreneurial companies tofacilitate the adoption of solar power inemerging markets. One of the great addedbenefits of solar power is that 60-70% of solarjobs are generated in the end-use market. Such

jobs are related to on-site solar power systemdesign, the manufacturing of system compo-nents, project management, and system instal-lation. By creating reliable access to nature’scleanest and most abundant energy resource,Suntech is providing clean economic anddevelopment opportunities everywhere underthe sun.

People often talk about the Earth’s delicateenvironment as a ‘non-linear system’ – in otherwords, one slight change, plus one slightchange, could equal seven major changes. Thisis as true with our climate, as it is with socialdevelopment. For example, you need roads todeliver medicine, you need medicine to remainhealthy, you need to remain healthy to work,and you need to work if you want to buildroads. If you remove any one support from this

development structure, the entire system willcrumble. This is why we should prioritize solu-tions that permanently eliminate risk variables,simplifying the equation for communitiesstriving to achieve sustainable developmentand prosperity for their children.

In this sense, independent solar powersystems are like vaccines against blackouts.They prevent those moments when you needto call a doctor but can’t charge your cellphone; or when you are teaching your child toread and the lights go out because your gener-ator is out of gas; or when you have to slowdown your manufacturing line because thegrid can’t meet electricity demands duringpeak hours. Solar power systems providedecades of clean and reliable power, and aredesigned to perform without problems in the

�

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Left: Irradiance map ofthe Earth showingaverage temperatures inApril, 2003. The imagewas created by theAtmospheric InfraredSounder (AIRS) at aninfrared wavelength that

senses either the Earth’ssurface or any interveningcloud. Photo: NASA/JPL

Below: Installation of aSolar Home System inTibet. Photo: SuntechPower

most extreme weather and environmentalconditions. They don’t require refuelling ormaintenance, and will perform as sure as thesun shines.

To better serve small, off-grid markets,Suntech Power recently launched an excitingproduct called the Solar Home System, acomplete ‘entry-level’ package for reliable solarelectricity generation. Each compact systemincludes a solar module (from 20Wp-120Wpoutput), a power storage and control device, aswell as an AC electricity socket and energy-effi-cient light bulbs appropriate for the system’sspecific power output. Most importantly, theSolar Home System can be easily transportedin the back of a car or truck, installed by alayperson with just an Allen wrench, a screw-driver, and a pair of pliers, and operated

through a single-button interface. We areproud to announce that the Government ofMongolia, backed by the World Bank, recentlypurchased 20,000 of our 50Wp Solar HomeSystems, and each will provide enough elec-tricity to power light bulbs or to charge cellphones. This is a fantastic example of agovernment that has taken leadership topromote rural electrification and drive long-term sustainable development.

If you look at an irradiance map of theEarth, it tells a hopeful story. The Sun shineson the rich and poor alike – it does not need apassport or visa, and it is not subject to ethnicconflict, broken infrastructure or politicaldisputes. The vast majority of inhabited landmass is heavily endowed with solar energy. Youmay not be able to dig an oil well or coal mine

in your backyard – or you may not want to –but you can probably harness the energyproduced by the Sun.

As the urgency of our mission grows withglobal energy demands, I celebrate each andevery morning knowing that the sun shineson us all. Suntech Power has already deliv-ered nearly 1.8GW of solar capacity to morethat 80 countries around the world. Frommegawatt-scale projects in Spain and Korea,to commercial installations in California andGermany, and off-grid installations in theHimalayas and the Middle East, Suntech ispowering a future where everyone has reli-able access to Nature’s cleanest and mostabundant energy resource. This makes meextremely proud because I believe in thepower of access. �

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Making It: The United Nations Industrial De-velopment Organization (UNIDO) is luckyenough to have its headquarters in the Aus-trian capital, and Austria has been a great sup-porter of UNIDO during the more than 40years it has been located in city of Vienna.How do you see Austria’s relations withUNIDO today?Michael Spindelegger: As host country, Austriatraditionally has close ties with UNIDO. Wesee UNIDO as a key partner in realizing im-portant development policy goals, and we areconvinced of the relevance and quality ofUNIDO’s work.

Austria has demonstrated its unwaveringcommitment to UNIDO through its activeinput, as well as its voluntary contributions

as one of UNIDO’s major donors. The organ-ization has succeeded in linking the fightagainst poverty with environmental sustain-ability, and is therefore offering solutions tothe most pressing problems. Today’s globalcrisis requires global responses and a pool-ing of resources. UNIDO is best suited to linkthe economic, social, and environmental as-pects of industrial development through thefacilitation of technology transfer, as well ascapacity building measures.

Austria is proud to host an organizationthat has managed to become a referencepoint for both economic development andthe environment. UNIDO can count on Aus-tria’s continuing support to reach ourcommon goals.

Austria’s three-year programme (2008-10) fordevelopment policy has private sector devel-opment as one of its thematic focuses, andmicro, small and medium-sized enterprisesare the main target group. What is the reasonfor this focus?The private sector is a major driver of eco-nomic growth, and a thriving business envi-ronment is a pre-condition for thedevelopment of a dynamic private sector thatcontributes to poverty reduction. Therefore,Austrian Development Cooperation supportsprogrammes to improve the political, eco-nomic, social, and ecological situation. Trans-parency and equal conditions for all marketparticipants, as well as access to infrastruc-ture, are crucial for these efforts.

Energy fordevelopment

Interview with Michael Spindelegger,Foreign Minister of the Republic of Austria

�

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Starting up a business is often the onlyway to make a living; however, it is not easy toget a commercial idea off the ground. That iswhy our main target groups are micro, smalland medium-sized enterprises. We supportprogrammes aimed at increasing legal cer-tainty, and introducing labour market or fiscallegislation that help to create an enabling en-vironment for small entrepreneurs. Theseprojects and programmes impart know-howabout business management, and the efficientorganization of production processes. In ad-dition, we facilitate access to financial servicesfor small entrepreneurs and others who needseed capital to put their ideas into practice, forexample through micro-credit funds or theAustrian Development Bank.Making It is particularly interested to knowmore about another focus of Austrian devel-opment policy: energy. What do you see asthe link between energy and private sectordevelopment?The energy sector is a major contributor toglobal climate change and local pollution.The focus on power generation from fossilfuels in some developing countries is likelyto have far-reaching ecological consequences.The negative effects of climate change riskjeopardizing the development progressachieved so far.

Sustainable solutions are needed tomaster the complex challenges in the energysector. A prime objective of our developmentcooperation is ensuring access to affordable,reliable, and sustainable energy services. Wealso support applied research and capacitybuilding. The availability of energy is crucialfor any enterprise, but also for private house-holds to facilitate domestic tasks like cook-ing or heating, leaving more time forstudying and productive work. One of the priority countries for Austrian de-velopment policy is Bhutan. Can you tell usmore about this partnership?Over the years, Austria has become one ofBhutan’s most important development part-ners. Our fruitful cooperation started in 1986when we were invited to cooperate in theelectrification of eastern Bhutan. Since then,three hydropower stations have been suc-cessfully installed and are today fully opera-tional. Besides that, five rural electrificationprogrammes provide access to electricity formore than 1,600 households, and a new pro-gramme to cover 800 households in thePhobjikha area is about to begin.

We are also engaged in the field of capac-ity building: We provide technical assistanceand the transfer of know-how to Bhutanese

technicians in order to ensure the successfulcompletion of relevant hydropower projectsby local companies. Moreover, Austria sup-ports practical training for the staff of theBhutanese Department of Energy. Still on energy, can you outline Austria’s in-volvement with the Economic Communityof West African States (ECOWAS) Centre forRenewable Energy and Energy Efficiency? In 2006, the ECOWAS Commission, repre-senting the 15 West African member states, re-focused its energy access agenda on thepromotion of the use of alternative energysources, including solar, wind, hydro-elec-tricity, biomass, and other renewable energysources. As a consequence, UNIDO and Eu-ropean Union member states were ap-proached to give their support to theestablishment of an ECOWAS RegionalCentre for Renewable Energy and Energy Ef-ficiency. This centre, located in Praia, in CapeVerde, will serve the region by increasingaccess to modern energy services and en-hancing energy security.

�

The Kingdom of Bhutan is a small,landlocked country in South Asia, located inthe eastern Himalayas, and bordered byIndia and China. Bhutan is home to apopulation of about 687,000, spread over anarea of approximately 47,000 km², withabout 70% of the land area under forestcover. Much of the population lives in thecentral highlands, and almost two-thirds areclassified as rural inhabitants.

While economic growth is consideredimportant, Bhutan is concerned withpreserving its culture, environment, andnational identity. The government seescreating an atmosphere where everyindividual can seek and achieve happiness as a major goal. Accordingly, thegovernment is pursuing a holistic path ofchange framed by a unique and home-grown development vision: Gross NationalHappiness. This political philosophy isunderpinned by four pillars that define theeffort to balance spiritualistic and materialadvancement: sustainable socio-economicdevelopment; conservation and sustainableuse of the environment; promotion ofculture; and good governance.

The economy has been largely isolatedfrom the global economic crisis, and isshowing signs of recovering from limitednegative impacts on tourism and the steelindustry. Hydropower could be a majorengine of growth and public revenue.Bhutan has limited domestic demand, andsurplus power is exported to India. Thecountry has the potential to develop 23,760MW of hydropower, of which only 5% hasbeen exploited so far. In the next five yearsthe installed hydropower generation capacityis targeted to go up from 1,488 MW in 2007to 1,602 MW in 2013. In addition, thegovernment is planning to add 10,000 MWof capacity by 2020. To this end, Bhutan andIndia have agreed on a list of 10 hydropowerprojects to be developed.

Source: World Bank

Spotlighton Bhutan

National flag of theKingdom of Bhutan.

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With the financial support of the govern-ments of Austria and Spain, operations beganin November 2009, and recruitment wascompleted this February. A detailed workprogramme is now being prepared. The spe-cific aims in the long run are to give 60% ofpeople in rural areas access to motive powerin order to stimulate economic activities, andto give 325 million people access to improvedcooking fuel and 214 million people individ-ual access to electricity.Austria has a strong interest in the economicdevelopment of countries in South-eastEurope, and two other priority countries arethe Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedoniaand Montenegro. Can you provide some de-tails about the various energy projects thatare being implemented in these countries?

In 1992, through an amendment to itsconstitution, Montenegro became an “Eco-logical State”. As a contribution to energy-ef-ficient and ecologically-sustainableconstruction in Montenegro, the AustrianDevelopment Agency is financing the plan-

ning costs, construction supervision, andsupply of eco-efficient materials for the con-struction of the United Nations’ new officesin Montenegro.

Austria also supports a number of energyprojects in Macedonia, such as the geother-mal project in Kocani, which should helpMacedonia to achieve energy independence.Its main objectives are the strengthening ofthe use of geothermics as a modern alterna-tive form of energy, the more efficient use ofthis energy, and technological improvementsin the supply of heat energy.

We also support a UNDP pilot project inMacedonia, which aims to improve energyefficiency in the building sector and en-hance the awareness and capacities of stake-holders involved in energy efficiency issues.In the long run, energy consumption in res-idential and public buildings should beminimized, thus not only reducing energydemand and greenhouse gas emissions, butalso increasing the energy independence ofthe country. �

The construction of a new, environmentally-friendly, United Nations building inPodgorica, the capital of Montenegro, isabout to begin. The building, located nextto the Millennium Bridge spanning theMorača river, will house the various UNagencies operating in Montenegro.

The building is intended to make asignificant contribution to the promotionof sustainable, ecological, and low energybuilding philosophy and technology, notonly in Montenegro, but also in South-eastEurope as a the whole. The description ofthe building as ‘ecological’, rather than‘energy-efficient’, reflects the use of locally-available building materials and theapplication of environmentally-friendlytechnologies. The project highlights theUN’s determination to promote sustainabledevelopment and the importance ofenvironmental building principles.

The eco-premises’ ventilation systemwill work on a displacement principle, withheat generated in office spaces used todrive a natural air circulation system.Energy for additional heating and air-conditioning will be provided by waterfrom the Morača river: in the summer, theriver water temperature is lower than theoutside air, and water will be pumpedthrough the building to cool it down; in thewinter, the offices will be warmed by riverwater that is heated and pumped by solarpower. Solar panels fitted on the roof ’s1400m² surface area will satisfy thebuilding’s entire annual energy demand.

The building is based on thepreliminary design developed by theAustrian architect, Daniel Fügenschuh, andthe British engineering company, KingShaw Associates. Completion is scheduledfor late 2011.

UNeco-premisesin Montenegro

Mr Spindelegger(centre-right) at anAustrian-financedwater sanitationproject in Kamdini,Uganda, July 2009.

The building will be heatedand cooled by water fromthe Morača river.

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A global challenge Demand for energy is expected to increase by40-50% over coming decades, driven primarilyby population growth and increasing prosper-ity. A rising population creates a greater needfor lighting, heating, transport, industrial pro-duction, and so forth. Around 1.5 billion peoplecurrently live without electricity. Their expect -ations of growing prosperity are legitimate.

All serious forecasts show that coal, oil, andgas will be the most important energy carriersfor several decades to come. Even in the “two-degree” scenario from the International EnergyAgency (IEA), the consumption of oil and gas isestimated to increase.

Emissions are an undesirable, but unavoid-able consequence of the growth in energy con-sumption. The fundamental dilemma facingall of us is therefore how to supply the worldwith sufficient energy, while simultaneously re-ducing greenhouse gas emissions.

A wide range of mitigation efforts are re-quired to reduce greenhouse gas emissions:energy efficiency, carbon capture and storage(CCS), fuel switching (e.g. coal to natural gas),nuclear power, renewable energy, etc.

Knowing that the world will be dependanton fossil fuels for the foreseeable future, thereis a need to develop technology to reduceemissions from the use of these fuels. Icannot see how CO2 emissions can be reducedin the medium to long term without a majordeployment of CCS. This is supported bymany key analyses, including the IEA’s WorldEnergy Outlook.

Industrial scale CCS CCS is a climate mitigation tool that capturescarbon dioxide (CO2) and stores it in deep geo-logical formations, away from the atmosphere.CCS is already being used on an industrial scale,and Statoil is currently involved in three largeCCS projects: Sleipner and Snøhvit (both off thecoast of Norway) and In Salah (in Algeria). All ofthese are projects where CO2 is removed fromthe wellstream at high pressure in a closedsystem, as distinct from the capture of CO2from the flue gases which are produced, for ex-ample, during the process of burning fossilfuels in power generation.

Although there are great expectations aboutfull scale CCS, and a lot of good technology de-velopment is taking place, it is important to beaware that, so far, no large CO2 capture fromflue gases has been realized. The costs of devel-oping huge CO2-capture plants are currentlytoo high, and further technology developmentis needed in order to make CCS a really signif-icant way to reduce carbon emissions.

On the political level, the attention beingpaid to CCS is growing. The European Union’snew climate package includes a CO2-storagedirective, as well as a revision of the EU emis-sion trading system to provide financial in-centives for CCS. CO2-reduction efforts in theUnited States, Canada, Norway, the UK, andAustralia, also include substantial supportschemes for CCS in this introductory phase.

In order to make CCS a part of the responseto climate challenge, I see four main challenges: � The costs of capture technology, which arecurrently way higher than CO2 emission costs. � The absence of a firm legal basis. � A lack of public awareness. � Some unsolved issues related to CCS infra-structure.

A price on CO2 emissions Mankind has been emitting CO2 into the at-mosphere for centuries. So far, most emissionsdo not have a cost attached to them. BeforeCCS can realize its potential as a mitigationtool, industry must be convinced that the long-term cost of emitting CO2 into the atmosphere

will be as high as, or higher, than the cost ofCCS; i.e. CCS has to become commercially-viable in its own right. One important elementhere is the capital cost and energy use associ-ated with CO2-capture, which have to be re-duced. (The high cost of post-combustioncapture is related to the need to first collect andstore huge volumes of flue gas, and then to heatit in order to release and capture the CO2.)

One of the most important factors holdingback the deployment of CCS – and indeed allclimate mitigation efforts – is therefore the lackof a world-wide, sufficiently high, and pre-dictable, CO2-price. The lack of such a price (aswell as the absence of a global mechanismwhereby the CO2 emissions that are stored arenot counted as “emitted”) means the pace oflarge-scale global deployment of CCS is beingslowed down. Financial and technical supportis needed to make CCS affordable and transfer-able, particularly to developing countries whereenergy demand is growing so rapidly. The CCSproject at In Salah in Algeria is a very interest-ing example as it is located in a developingcountry without a greenhouse gas limitation

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target. It is my belief that many more industrialCCS projects of this type could have been real-ized if a mechanism had existed to finance suchprojects. Over many years there have been attempts to include CCS in the Clean Develop-ment Mechanism (CDM), but this has so farfailed to materialize.

To date, no large scale CO2 capture projectsfrom flue gases (power plants, industrial fluegas) have been realized. Thus, we have no costexperiences to refer to, and cost estimatesbased solely on paper studies vary by severalhundred percent, depending on country, com-pany, site chosen, or whether it is a retrofit ornew build. There is no database for this type ofcapture cost, and so far there has been littlesharing of capital expenditure estimates be-tween commercial power plant actors aroundthe world.

Public-private partnership is necessary in apre-commercial period until the mitigationcost has come down and the cost of emittinghas gone up to a sufficient level. Most countriesneed to increase their pre-commercial fundingfor the early demonstration phase of CCS.

At the Mongstad refinery in Norway, ourplan is to capture CO2 from the exhaust gasesfrom the combined heat and power plant, andfrom different emission points at the refinery.This is technologically challenging. Statoil, to-gether with the Norwegian authorities andother industrial partners, has therefore estab-lished a European Carbon Dioxide Test Centreat Mongstad. Here, two capture technologiesfor improving performance and reducing costswill be put to the test.

Legal issues A substantial effort to establish a legal frame-work for CCS has been carried out in the EU,the US, Canada, and Australia. However, thereare some important issues that are still out-standing. These include regulations regardingthe transfer of long-term liability for storagesites between a commercial storage operatorand the government, the licensing of storageacreage, work programmes to obtain such li-cences, and regulations concerning environ-mental, safety, and health issues.

One recent success has been to have the

London and Ospar Conventions rewritten toallow CO2 storage in geological formationsunder the seabed, and to permit trans-bound-ary transportation of CO2. Much good work isbeing done by governments in this area; how-ever the procedures for implementation ofthese Conventions makes for relatively slowprogress in ratifying any changes.

Even with a legal framework in place,public acceptance and understanding will beessential for projects to go ahead. Industryand government must work to improve theawareness, understanding, and general ac-ceptance of the merits of CCS as a viable mit-igation tool.

CCS infrastructure A framework for CCS infrastructure, in partic-ular transport networks and storage sites, hasto be in place in order to deploy full-scale CCS.If CCS is to be captured from many differentsources, some sort of gathering system totransport the CO2 to the storage sites has to bedeveloped. A CO2 transport network should beplanned and set up in parallel with the largescale development of capture facilities. There isa pressing need to establish more operatingstorage sites in order to learn about the practi-calities of storage and to demonstrate to thepublic that safe storage is possible under vari-ous geological conditions.

Statoil has more than 13 years of experienceof CO2 storage at the geological formation atthe Sleipner field in the North Sea. There theCO2 is prevented from seeping into the at-mosphere by an 800 metre-thick cap rockabove the actual storage location. By the end of2008, eleven million tonnes of CO2 had beenstored there. Statoil has been very open withthe monitoring data from Sleipner, which hasbeen mapped and analysed by various researchprojects partly financed by the EU. Seismictesting in June 2008 showed that the CO2plume is behaving as planned.

Despite some unsolved issues, we believeCCS will be one of the central CO2 mitigationtools. We need pioneers from industry, gov-ernments, researchers, and environmentalNGOs to explore this path. Climate change isthe biggest challenge of our time, and findingsustainable solutions is a matter of urgency.Everyone has a substantial responsibility, andeveryone must contribute.

For a long-term industry player like Statoil, a level playing field and good pre-dictability are crucial. In this context, globalpolitical leadership must accept its responsi-bility, and not underestimate its actual roomfor manoeuvre. �

Carboncapture and storageA necessary climate mitigation toolHelge Lund, President and CEO of Statoil, an international energy company withoperations in 40 countries, and a worldleader in CCS development and application.

Carbon capture andstorage is the separation,capture, transport, andstorage of CO2 that resultsfrom the production,processing and burning ofoil, gas, and coal. In thisillustration of Statoil'sSleipner project in theNorth Sea, CO2 separatedfrom the project's naturalgas production stream (onthe left) is captured andthen injected back into thepermeable rock beneaththe seabed (on the right).

POLICY BRIEF

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Extracted from Private financing of renewableenergy – a guide for policymakers written bySophie Justice, and published jointly by theRenewable Energy Finance Project, ChathamHouse; Bloomberg New Energy Finance; andthe UNEP Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative.

A broad range of financial institutions arenow investing in or lending money to therenewable energy (RE) sector. Globalinvestment grew exponentially fromUS$22 billion in 2002 to US$155 billion in2008 when, for the first time, investmentin new RE power generation capacity(including large hydro) was greater thaninvestment in fossil fuel generation. Thefinancial crisis in late 2008/first quarter2009 did hit the sector heavily, although abounce-back was subsequently observed,and investor interest in the sectorremained throughout.

Financial institutions operate on a riskand return basis evaluating each potentialinvestment opportunity on its merits.Project assessment, documentation, anddue diligence are conducted in a mannerconsistent with investments in othersectors. The range of RE risk profiles canbe well matched to the spectrum offinancial institutions from banks, pensionfunds, private equity and ventue capital.However, the RE sector requires a clearpolicy environment to deliver the projecteconomics to attract private debt andequity. Policy and regulation continue tobe central to ensuring the long termstability of projects from a revenue and

operation perspective. It is imperative thatboth regulation and policy be clear, of along duration, and legally based, in orderto deliver growing volumes of privatefunds into the RE sector.

RE projects in emerging markets, ordeveloping countries, must address thetypical due diligence and investmentscrutiny, but face additional complications

that require careful mitigation. Particularfocus will be placed on: � The stability and maturity of thepolitical system: this influences the abilityfor projects to reach a successfulconclusion, as the greater the instability,the smaller the pool of investors andcommercial lenders to fund projects.Mitigation can include political riskinsurance provided by bodies such as theMultilateral Insurance Guarantee Agency(MIGA) insuring against contract default,currency inconvertibility, expropriation,and war and strife. � Overall legal, regulatory, tax andbusiness environment: if it is difficult todo any business on a legal and transparentbasis, then implementing a RE project forlong-term power generation will provechallenging. Investors will naturally favourcountries which engage in standardbusiness practices, for example for board

Financingrenewableenergy

“Lenders and investors needto be conscious of marketdifferences between countries,hence the need for appropriatetechnologies, off-gridsolutions and the inclusion ofrenewable energy projects”

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POLICY BRIEF

of risk often associated with developingmarkets. Direct grants and the provisionof commercial or soft loans canconsiderably assist project deliverabilitywhere either a commercial project faces afunding gap or a commercial lender isunwilling to shoulder the entire projectrisk. However, grants or loans need to beavailable, structured and delivered in acommercial and timely manner consistentwith the project development and thetimelines of the other project investors

and lenders to ensure the RE project doesnot founder. Private financiers havecommented that historically manyprojects have failed when in partnershipwith public finance, owing to an apparentlack of ‘fleetness of foot’, commercialperspective and flexibility – all requiredproblem-solving features in successfulprivate transactions. � The full report can be read online at:www.chathamhouse.org.uk/publications/papers/view/-/id/811/

MARIANNE OSTERKORN, Director General of REEEP (Renewable Energy and EnergyEfficiency Partnership), tells Making It aboutsome of the organisation’s experience of 130targeted projects over the past five years.REEEP is a global partnership that works toreduce the barriers limiting the uptake ofrenewable energy and energy efficiencytechnologies, with a primary focus onemerging markets and developing countries.

What does the term “targeted project” mean? Basically, there are two elements that arecritical to ensure the uptake of cleanenergy in a given country: first andforemost, a country needs stable policyand regulatory frameworks that create theconditions that allow the market todevelop. Second, it needs financing andbusiness models that make renewableenergy and energy efficiency a bankableprospect, particularly for entrepreneurs.REEEP projects are evenly split betweenthese two types of targeted interventions. On policy and regulation, you have some

clear ideas about what works and whatdoesn’t. What are your opinions based on?My opinions are based on experience.About half of the 130 REEEP-fundedprojects, either completed or in progress,relate specifically to assistinggovernments with clean energy policyand regulation. We’ve funded policyprojects in places as diverse as India,Ecuador, and Fiji. The formulation of aRenewable Energy Law in post-warLiberia, the revision of China’s RenewableEnergy Law, and a project with the UNDP,which led to the passing of a RenewableEnergy Law in Kazahkstan last June, arethree recent examples.

On regulation, we have worked withMexico’s energy regulator to identify newprocedures and codes to supportrenewable energy development. Lookingforward, we are currently funding a studyby the Centre for Renewable EnergyDevelopment into how China could meet30% of its 2030 energy needs withrenewable sources, as an input to the

How policy-makerscan make a difference

appointments and annual reporting. Theavailability of long term power purchaseagreements, concessions, and sound legalrights over project land, all improve theoverall risk profile.

Emerging markets and developingcountries with their smaller economiesfeature less mature stock markets andsupporting regulations, and thereforeexperience comparative liquidityrestrictions. As mitigation, investmentscan be structured in a manner thatrecognizes this, for example, with stronggovernment or sponsor guaranteesconfirming the on-going revenue stream.Working with a respected local partyfrequently improves project quality andaccelerates delivery.

Local currency: investments made inlocal currency can be subject to exchangerate fluctuations, devaluation or thevagaries of domestic monetary policy.Partnering with local financialinstitutions, potentially to structure dualcurrency loans, can provide the requiredmitigation to the lenders and projectsponsors. Alternatively, projects can bestructured with credit guarantees, riskguarantees, and hedging productsprovided by development banks andexport credit agencies.

Energy market and infrastructure:Lenders and investors need to be consciousof market differences between countries,hence the need for appropriatetechnologies, and off-grid solutions, and theinclusion of smaller or discrete RE projects.Projects can be hampered by a shortage ofcredit-worthy recipients for the powergenerated by proposed RE projects. Thechallenges posed by a lack of infrastructureand the impact this can have on projectconstruction and on-going operation alsoneed to be considered.

Public finance in emerging markets canbe a very effective means of enabling REprojects, particularly given the higher level �

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government’s five-year planning cycle. Do you think governments can play animportant role in the low-carbon transition?Yes, absolutely. In most developingcountries, the energy sector is owned andcontrolled by the state, either directly orindirectly. And regardless of ownership,the energy sector is always heavilyregulated, again by government. So,government holds the key to energytransformation. This is a very basic realitythat is often overlooked.What, in your view, should governmentsconcentrate on first?The so-called “low hanging fruit” has got tobe energy efficiency policy and regulation.This isn’t just something for developedcountries. In developing parts of the world,energy efficiency has huge potential to helprelieve peak loads and slow the demandincrease for new power plants. What kind of tools work in promotingend-use efficiency? Standards and labelling are the mosteffective means. They require littlegovernment spending and they arerelatively easy to implement. Withappliance labelling for example, privatehouseholds can make an informed choicewhen buying, and manufacturers have aninterest in improving the technicalefficiency of lighting, refrigerators and airconditioners. As an example, REEEPsupported Africa’s first appliance labellingprogramme in Ghana. We have also helpedto finance the expansion of the APECEnergy Standards Information System(ESIS), so other countries don’t need tostart from scratch in developing appliancestandards or labelling programmes. What can sub-national entities do topromote efficiency?Energy efficiency in buildings is a goodexample here. Building codes are oftenlocal or provincial, and setting low energyconsumption standards for new buildingsis a good long-term strategy that can begin

here and now. REEEP is also workingthrough its Energy Efficiency Coalition(EEC) to set up local stakeholder networksto advance building energy efficiency onthe ground. One such network has beencreated in Mexico, and similar efforts arebeginning in China.On renewable energy, what actions do yourecommend to policy-makers?There is really no one-size-fits-allsolution with renewable energy. Thesolutions here will depend on a country’sgeography and climate, local politics andmany other variables.

That said, solar water heating (SWH) isnow commercially viable in mostdeveloping countries. It is a low carbonenergy technology that’s superior to theconventional alternatives, and at the sametime, is an effective demand-sidemanagement tool for areas with peak powershortages. Mandating SWH in all new andretrofit buildings can have a huge effect.This is another measure than can be carriedout at city or state/provincial level. CapeTown’s efforts in this regard, which havebeen supported by REEEP, are exemplary. What other advice do you have for policy-makers? Well, it would be two thoughts. The first isabout rural electrification, for which manycountries already have ambitiousprogrammes in place. Here, I wouldcaution policy-makers not to just think interms of rural electricity, but in terms ofrural energy. For example, if electricity isprovided for light, but there is still a needto gather firewood for heat and cooking,electrification won’t contribute tosustainable development as intended.

Second, in cities and suburbs there is asimilar need to think holistically.Renewable electricity generation is onebuilding block, but waste managementand energy efficiency should also beincluded in an integrated energy policyfor an urban area. �

By MIGUEL MENDONÇA, research managerat the World Future Council

A feed-in tariff (FiT) is a renewable energylaw that obliges energy suppliers to buyelectricity produced from renewableresources at a fixed price, usually over afixed period.

The feed-in tariff mechanism has beenused in over 50 countries worldwide,driving the majority of renewable energyinvestment and deployment to date, andcreating world-leading industries inseveral countries. It has pushed costsdown and efficiencies up, and can beadapted for least developed countries andemerging economies. Well-designed andimplemented FiTs can provide access toenergy, while reducing fossil fueldependency and creating low-carbongrowth. The critical question, however, ishow to fund them.

Some key proposals emerged aroundthe UN Climate Change Conference,COP15, aimed at breaking the deadlockover financing technology transfer fromthe global north to the global south:

The World Wind Energy Association andthe International Renewable EnergyAlliance advocate a Global RenewableEnergy Investment Programme,containing a global FiT fund, to besourced from obligatory annualcontributions from the Annex I(developed) countries. They also suggestways of reforming the Clean DevelopmentMechanism (CDM) to be more effectivefor the deployment of wind power andother technologies.

The World Future Council (WFC) hasproposed ‘creating new money’ for

Getting FiT�

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POLICY BRIEF

‘overcharging’ commercial and industrialelectricity customers in order to generateFiT funds.

A proposed model to adapt the FiTscheme to off-grid areas in developingcountries is the so-called ‘RenewableEnergy Premium Tariff ’ (RPT). Like anormal FiT, it rewards performance ratherthan simply supplying the initial capitalinvestment funds for the installation. TheRPT has been analysed under differentownership, regulatory and institutionalframeworks, and options for practicalapplications are being considered.

In 2009, the emerging economies ofIndia, China, and South Africa, have allintroduced national FiTs. South Africa,

with both major power capacityconstraints and significant carbonreduction targets, has embarked on theestablishment of an ambitious FiT, butthere remains a need to finalize theoperational details to enable powerpurchase agreements to be signed. Kenyaalso established a FiT in 2009, andUganda, Botswana and Mauritius arelooking at FiT legislation. China hasintroduced a FiT for wind, which replacesthe tendering system. The NationalDevelopment and Reform Commission,the country’s economic planning agency,expects it to guide investment decisionsmore clearly. A FiT for solar power isanticipated. India has regional FiTs inaround half a dozen states, but has nowopted for a national scheme, covering allrenewables, with attractive rates of return.

The main recommendations for FiTs inthe developing world concern financing –guaranteeing international monies for 20-year FiT-funds – and creating a stronginstitutional and legal framework.Existing funds are often linked tomanagement by international institutionssuch as UN bodies or the InternationalMonetary Fund or World Bank, but thisrequires exploration. The InternationalRenewable Energy Agency (IRENA) may beable to play a strong role in the creation ofthis framework.

FiTs could be combined with the CDM,as the additionality criteria have beenaltered since November 2001, to allowcoexistence with established nationalsupport schemes (additionality is whereemissions reductions must be beyond oradditional to what would have happenedin the absence of the project). However,the area is complex, and with continuinguncertainty over internationalmechanisms such as the CDM, it isrecommended for now that FiT schemesstand alone and apart from anything thatraises investment risk. �

climate-protecting measures, a modelrecently applied to the banking sector.Governments can authorize this in theform of the Special Drawing Rights of theInternational Monetary Fund. This shouldbe interest-free and non-inflationary. A specific FiT design for LDCs is beingpursued by the WFC. A new book, Poweringthe Green Economy – The Feed-in TariffHandbook suggests methodologies for bothgrid-connected and off-grid installations,including village mini-grids. It alsoproposes the creation of a dedicated FiTfund, sourced from national budgetsand/or international donors.

Greenpeace and the EuropeanRenewable Energy Council have alsoexplored the creation of a major fund,called the Feed-in Tariff SupportMechanism (FTSM). It would link FiTswith emission trading schemes and/orfunding arrangements, and use existinginternational finance arrangements andinstitutions to deliver project finance atlow risk. It seeks to create a reliablealternative to CDM which connectsbottom-up planning with top-downfinancing. It would be funded bycontributions from OECD countries.

Another emerging possibility is

“Well-designed and imple-mented FiTs can provideaccess to energy, while break-ing fossil fuel dependency andcreating low carbon growth.But the critical question ishow to fund them. ”

Village mini-grids canuse the FiT mechanismto sell excess electricityto a local energy utility.

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As an appetizer for the third issue of Making It,ALICE AMSDEN, Professor of Political Economyat the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT), shares some thoughts on industrial policyand poverty reduction.

Today’s grassroots approach to povertyreduction shouldn’t be equated simplywith boot-strap operations or self-helpschemes. The bottom-up policies andinstitutions that are now beingexperimented with in Africa and otherpoor regions have highly innovativeelements.

One revolutionary element is that poorpeople today are no longer regarded asbeing lazy, as they were in the past!Instead, they are seen as being highlyentrepreneurial. The latententrepreneurship of the poor is supposedto be released with the application ofgreater human capital: health care,housing, education, training, and the‘freedom to choose’, as Nobel LaureateAmartya Sen has emphasized.

New types of financial institutions, suchas the Grameen Bank, and new types offinancial instruments, such as micro-loans, can help get poor people started.This type of supply-side human capitalformation can be further enhanced bycombining state-of-the art, yetappropriate, technologies designed forsmall-scale operations. An example is thelow-cost cooking stove that world-classinventors have been working on to helppoor people around the world avoid

environmental degradation and lungdisease from indoor fumes.

The agent of change is no longerconsidered to be the government, butrather the non-governmentalorganization, or NGO. Instead of paidlabour, socially conscious volunteers fromdeveloped, as well as developing countriescan help advance the anti-poverty cause.

Yet, despite these innovations andenormous efforts at human capitalformation, poverty in most poor areas ofthe developing world doesn’t seem to havedecreased. World Bank data for Africashow that, between 1981 and 2005, thepercentage of people below a sociallyaccepted living standard (such as theequivalent of US$1.25 a day) has not fallen.Life expectancy in the poorest countriesremains unbelievably low, at around only40 or 50 years. Entrepreneurship has stillnot fundamentally changed the way poorpeople live.

Demand-side policiesWhy this is so may be attributed to a fatalflaw in grassroots thinking: that supplycreates its own demand, as firstmistakenly conceived by a Frencheconomist, Jean Baptiste Say, in theeighteenth century. The supply ofpotentially productive entrepreneurs hasnot automatically created the demand to

profitably employ them. The reason forthis is that too few policies operate on thedemand side (fiscal, trade, labour andindustrial) to create more economicopportunities for entrepreneurs toexploit. Simply, no matter how healthy oreducated a poor job-seeker might become,there are not enough good businessopportunities or paid jobs to go around.

Opportunities for entrepreneurs have tobe increased on the demand side. Can weuse ‘grassroots industrial policies’ to createprofessionally-managed firms that willincrease demand for the services of clerksand administrators, production workers,parts suppliers, and service providers?

One objective of such demand-sidepolicies would be to create ‘professional’business enterprises in rural regions andlow-income urban communities that arelarger than micro-enterprises, in order todiffuse modern management techniquesand engineering practices to inexperiencedentrepreneurs, thereby enabling them togain hands-on business experience.Experience is probably what entrepreneursin poor countries most lack when strivingto export their products to neighbouringand world markets.

Role modelsJust as grassroots poverty reduction hasmoved beyond self-help programmes,successful ‘role models’ now exist to helppoor countries enter the charmed circle ofexperienced manufacturers and serviceproviders. In terms of securing sources tofinance such projects, there are now 40 ormore poor countries that produce morethan one million barrels of oil a day, andOPEC members provide a role model forcreating excellently-managed national oilcompanies within political systems thatwere once regarded as highly corrupt. Thenational oil companies of OPEC membershave managed to reverse brain drain, andcreate investment opportunities for small

Grassrootsindustrialpolicies

Alice Amsden is a memberof the UN Council forDevelopment Policy

ENDPIECE

and medium sized parts and componentsuppliers in related sectors. Petrobras,Brazil’s oil giant, has a programmeunderway to create 80,000 suchenterprises. As these companies becomeprofessionally managed, they will offergood opportunities for experiencedmanagers, engineers, and shop-floorsupervisors to return home from overseas,further increasing investmentopportunities in a virtuous circle. Withoutindustrial policies to raise investmentprospects, such talent would be totally lostto countries that need it the most.

Meiji-era Japan (1868 -1912) is a goodexample of a country that acceleratedthe acquisition of hands-on experienceby creating ‘model factories,’ especiallyin the labour-intensive silk industry,based on a natural resource. Althoughmany such companies failed initially,their trained personnel went on to openfactories that ultimately succeeded,creating Japan’s leading sector beforeWorld War One.

Reverse brain drainTaiwan Province of China, small inpopulation size like many poorcountries today, built networks of smallenterprises with the aid of governmentpromotion policies, which then dottedthe countryside and providedemployment opportunities for under-employed farmers. Initially these firmswere regarded as inefficient andbackward, but they quickly improved asgovernment techno-centres opened toassist them, and ‘brain drain migrants’returned home to become owners oftheir own companies. These techno-centres offered higher salaries toexperienced workers and engineers toreverse brain drain. But the costsultimately paid off in the form of a moreexperienced and educated localworkforce. To establish more

entrepreneurial enterprises and paidjobs, the government providedincentives to the Singer sewing machinecompany to locate a subsidiary inTaiwan Province of China, which thenacted as a tutor to local small andmedium sized entreprises producingthe thousands of parts that go into asewing machine.

China’s ‘town and village enterprises’(TVEs) were an ad hoc type of institutionthat combined the unemployed labourof rural regions with the excess capitalequipment of large state-ownedenterprises, coordinated by localpolitical leaders. The TVEs are creditedwith the ultra-fast growth in both outputand employment that followed China’s1978 reforms. Today, modern second-hand equipment can be bought fromabroad.

Most “investment climate” reports(that is, feasibility studies) undertaken bythe World Bank and private consultingfirms indicate the potential for profitableinvestment opportunities in poorcountries. As the owner of one of TheRepublic of Korea’s big business groupsremarked after he came back from Africa,all he could see growing on the trees wasmoney, although he conceded that to getit would take hard work andcoordination.

First stepToday, with role models around toemulate within the developing worlditself, there are less grounds than ever forfatalism, or for thinking that nothinggovernments do can work. Although thegrassroots is where new industrialpolicies and investments in small-scalemodern industries must ultimatelyreside, the first step must be to bring thedemand side back into the picture, andto look beyond the grassroots and strictlysupply-side measures. �

MakingIt 47

Amsden, Alice – Escape from Empire: The DevelopingWorld's Journey through Heaven and Hell

Barnes, Douglas F. (Editor) – The Challenge of RuralElectrification: Strategies for Developing Countries

International Energy Agency – Transport, Energy andCO2: Moving Towards Sustainability

Jacobs, David and Kiene, Ansgar (World FutureCouncil) – Renewable Energy Policies forSustainable African Development

Kamkwamba, William – The Boy Who Harnessed theWind

Kane, Gareth – The Three Secrets of Green Business:Unlocking Competitive Advantage in a Low CarbonEconomy

Mendonça, Miguel et al. – Powering the GreenEconomy: The Feed-in Tariff Handbook

Shaad, Brian and Wilson, Emma – Access toSustainable Energy: What Role for International Oiland Gas Companies? Focus on Nigeria

UNIDO – Policies for promoting industrial energyefficiency in developing countries and transitioneconomies

UNIDO – Energy Efficiency: A Low-Carbon Path forIndustry

UNIDO – Navigating Bioenergy: Contributing toInformed Decision Making on Bioenergy Issues

Von Uexküll, Jakob (World Future Council) – Breakingthe Funding Deadlock: Creating New Money toFinance Climate Security and Climate Justice

http://cogen.unep.org/ – ‘Cogeneration for Africa’ is aninnovative and first-of-its-kind clean energy regionalinitiative, funded by the Global Environment Facility.

http://earthtrends.wri.org/ – EarthTrends is acomprehensive online database, maintained by theWorld Resources Institute that focuses on theenvironmental, social, and economic trends thatshape our world.

http://solar.coolerplanet.com – Cooler Planet is abusiness dedicated to helping consumers and smallbusiness owners reduce their carbon footprints, andhelp limit global climate change.

http://theenergycollective.com – Power, Policy, Climate:a place where conversation happens.

www.ashdenawards.org/ – Inspiring sustainable energysolutions.

www.chathamhouse.org.uk/ – Chatham House’smission is to be a world-leading source ofindependent analysis, informed debate, andinfluential ideas on how to build a prosperous andsecure world for all.

www.japanfs.org/en/ – Japan for Sustainability is a non-profit communication platform to disseminateenvironmental information from Japan to the world.

www.ren21.net/map – A map containing a wealth ofinformation on renewable energy including supportpolicies, expansion targets, current shares, installedcapacity, current production, future scenarios, andpolicy pledges.

www.RenewableEnergyWorld.com – Source forrenewable energy news and information.

www.wind-works.org/ – An on-line archive of articlesand commentary primarily on wind energy, Feed-inTariffs, and Advanced Renewable Tariffs.

www.worldenergy.org/ – The World Energy Council isthe “foremost multi-energy organization in theworld today”.

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