What’s most glaring about this cool infographic on global investment in clean energy is not how much is invested around the world, but how little is invested in Africa, where over 90 percent of sub-Saharan Africa depends on wood, charcoal, and animal dung for cooking and heating.
This graphic also raises a larger question: what constitutes “clean energy?”
When close to 2 million people die each day (mostly women and children) for lack of energy efficient cookstoves or lack of access to alternative, sustainable biofuels, then it’s a clean energy issue, too, no?
What’s more “Clean Energy” has been defined by much of the world as technologies that reduce CO2 emissions. Yet, black carbon, which is emitted in huge quantities from the inefficient burning of wood and animal dung in unimproved cookstoves, is scientifically recognized as a very powerful global warming emission. Why not include black carbon into the mix of dirty technologies in need to clean energy investments?
And what about the disproportionate public health impact of indoor air pollution on women and children’s health? When every 15 seconds a woman or child dies from indoor air pollution, shouldn’t this be a cause of concern? Especially when simple technological fixes abound? Even though no one has bothered to do a cost-benefit analysis of what it costs society to continue burning biomass the way we do under a business as usual scenario, we bet the numbers are significant when it comes to public health, environmental destruction, Climate Change, and the perpetuation of the poverty cycle.
There are good reasons to believe that as the world develops, difficult problems will be addressed and solved.
When it comes to energy poverty, not so, says the International Energy Agency (IEA). The chart below tells the story clearly enough.
Don’t you think it’s time to redefine what Clean Energy means?
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