OPINION
The UN released last week a report that called on the world to ensure universal access to modern energy services by 2030 and reduce global energy intensity by 40 per cent by 2030.
These are laudable goals to be sure, as are the Millenium Development Goals, clean water and sanitation for those who don’t have it, and eradicating world poverty.
The report is very helpful in that it provides strategies and roadmaps to achieve the lofty goals. Yet the report is vintage UN fare: the triumph of optimism over experience. I say this because the solution proposed, the wholesale electrification of the energy poor to be paid for by “innovative financial mechanisms” is as likely a solution as planting wind turbines and photovoltaics on every thatched roof or corrugated tin hut in the developing world. It’s just not going to happen.
Also, let’ suppose that, say, Carlos Slim (who is actually a member of the panel that drafted the report) decides to make this his cause, his legacy, and decides to cough up the $35 to $40 billion needed to achieve the goal. Do the energy poor, especially those who depend on biomass for their primary fuel have to wait until electricity magically arrives before they can get rid of their three-rocks-and-pot that is killing their children, mother, and wives? This question was actually bravely posed in a closed door Q&A held after the release of the report. The response given by a prominent non-UN economist was literally,”nothing.” Nothing is being done for the energy poor until electricity magically arrives.
So, Mr. Carlos Slim, and all the other fancy members of the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change (AGECC), where’s the money going to come from?
I’m sorry to not be more optimistic about this initiative but my hopes are on individual governments, civil society, and the private.
Kim
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