The World Summit on Sustainable Development offers a potentialdouble win: reducing poverty without choking the planet. To achievethis there needs to be a global action plan to provide clean,sustainable energy to the world’s poor.Two billion people have no access to electricity and up to threebillion depend on bio-mass (wood, charcoal and dung) to meet theirhousehold energy needs. Energy services have a critical role inachieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The UNCommission on Sustainable Development has called access tosustainable energy a “prerequisite” for halving poverty by 2015.What is required at WSSD are strong intergovernmentalcommitments (‘Type 1’) on sustainable energy to complementvoluntary partnerships (‘Type 2’) between governments, businessesand civil society groups.Sustainable energy for cooking…Nearly two million people, mostly children, die each year becausetheir homes are polluted with smoke from cooking fires. Manypeople in developing countries spend up to a third of their incomeon energy, most of which is for cooking. Women spend up to threehours a day collecting firewood, walking up to ten kilometres andcarrying 35kg of wood. More efficient stoves can reduce the amountof fuel used. In addition, simple, low-cost solutions to deadly indoorair pollution are available, including chimney stoves, smoke hoods,switching to cleaner fuels and improved ventilation.■ Provide one billion people with improved, clean stoves by 2015■ Halve the numbers of deaths from indoor air pollution by 2015■ Put in place reforestation programmes in order to createsustainable supplies of biomassGetting renewable electricity to the rural poor…Many of the two billion people who lack access to electricity live inrural areas that are far from transmission grids. Decentralisedrenewable energy options can use resources more efficiently,empower local communities, develop indigenous technological andmanufacturing capacity and deliver strong environmental benefits.■ Provide electricity to one billion of those who currently lackaccess to clean energy by 2015 – at least two-thirds of this fromrenewable energySustainable energy for the urban poor…Urbanisation is one of the defining trends of the developing worldtoday. Many poor people living in cities depend on wood and charcoalfor fuel, which contributes to both air pollution and deforestation. Inthe short to medium term fossil fuels will continue to be the mainalternative fuel for poor urban households. However, innovativetechnologies like solar water heaters, waste-to-energy and biogasneed to be developed to deliver sustainable long term solutions.■ Put in place international and national strategies to assist theurban poor in the transition to cleaner and more sustainable fuelsPower to the PeopleSustainable energy solutions for the world’s poorPower to thePeople: a TenPoint Agendafor ChangeTo meet these challenges– clean energy forcooking, renewable ruralelectrification,sustainable energy to theurban poor – ITDG iscalling for a ten pointAgenda for Change1. Put energy at the heartof poverty reductionstrategies2. Provide aid support tosustainable energyoptions for the poor3. Shift trade andsubsidy policiestowards renewableenergy4.Develop financingmechanisms to reachthe grass roots5. Increase nationalcapacity forsustainable energy6. Leverage privatesector partnerships totarget the poor7. Engage the poor asactive partners indelivering change8. Set up a decentralisedinternationalrenewable energyagency9. Agree a target of 15per cent of globalenergy to come fromrenewable energy by201010.Move towards tougherlong-term globalaction on climatechangeEnergy, poverty and environmentEnergy is the lifeblood of human society and economics. It cooks the foodwe eat. It heats our schools. It lights our hospitals. It powers ourindustries. It keeps us warm – or cool – in our homes. And for a majority ofthe world’s people, turning on a light switch is something that rarely, ifever, requires conscious thought.Yet over two billion people in the developing world today have no modernenergy services. Eighty per cent of people in sub-Saharan Africa have noelectricity. Access to basic, clean energy services is essential for sustainabledevelopment and poverty eradication, and provides major benefits in theareas of health, literacy and equity. The Millennium Development Goal ofhalving poverty will not be achieved without energy to increase productionand income, create jobs and reduce drudgery. Improving health andreducing death rates will not happen without energy for the refrigerationneeded for vaccination campaigns. The world’s greatest child killer, acuterespiratory infection, will not be tackled without dealing with smoke fromcooking fires in the home. Children will not study at night without light intheir homes. Water will not be pumped or treated without energy.At the same time, the world faces another great challenge: the prospect of aclimatic catastrophe if present trends of fossil fuel consumption continue.Heat-trapping gases such as carbon dioxide and methane that keep more ofthe sun’s warming energy in the earth’s atmosphere cause climate change.This is primarily caused by the industrialised world’s fossil fuel consumption,although developing country emissions are rising quickly. Per capitaemissions of developed country citizens are far higher than those of peopleliving in developing countries: the average American produced 20 tonnes ofCO2in 1998, compared to an Indian average of less than one tonne. TheIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects a substantial globaltemperature rise and sea level increase, and more extreme weather eventssuch as floods, hurricanes, drought and heat-waves. Those most vulnerableto these changes live in the developing world.Developing countries will feel these impacts most acutely, even thoughthey also have the least responsibility for climate change. A range of effectsconsistent with climate change has primarily triggered the current faminein Southern Africa. Extreme weather events are growing stronger and morefrequent, as recent years have shown abundantly in events ranging fromthe Orissa Cyclone in India and floods in Mozambique to Hurricane Mitch inCentral America. Most tellingly of all, the people of Tuvalu – a tiny smallisland state in the South Pacific – havestarted negotiations with New Zealandfor the evacuation of their entirepopulation. Rising sea