Assistance in Decreasing Levels of Energy Poverty

March 11, 2010

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The World Bank should also consider short-term transition plans to assist countries in decreasing their levels of energy poverty as well as maintaining energy security. The bank should work with host countries and other multilateral development banks to develop long-term integrated energy planning that addresses immediate needs while also planning for the future. Energy pathways that will exacerbate poverty should not be locked in for the sake of achieving short-term energy needs. But security for the present can be met though a variety of low-carbon transition fuels that make such transitions more successful so long as they do not become crutches that can never be kicked away.

In addition, the propriety of projects selected should reflect not only a host county’s economic portfolio, but also its carbon profile. Smaller arenas for climate negotiations that have been employed over the past year, such as the Major Economies Forum, are organized around a principle that successful mitigation of carbon pollution does not require the cooperation of all of the world’s countries, but only those  responsible for some 80 percent of emissions. There is a vast difference between the emissions profile of countries such as China, India, Brazil, and Indonesia on the one hand and Chad, Paraguay, Liberia, and Laos on the other. Some of these economies can sustain a  longer transition period from traditional sources and lower-carbon solutions and others must lock in lowest- and no-carbon sources as  quickly as possible.

For more information on this topic, please see:

• Development Funding Done Right by Kari Manlove, Andrew Light, Kate Gordon, and Richard W. Caperton