Powering Poverty ReductionPowering Poverty ReductionITDG position paper for Renewables 2004Bonn, 1-4 June 2004Powering Poverty Reduction – ITDG, May 20042ContentsExecutive summary ................................................................................. 3Why Renewables 2004 must address poverty ........................................ 5Failure of centralised energy to reach millions of the poor ...................... 5Expanding energy choices for the poor ................................................... 6Priority concerns for energy and poverty ................................................. 7Climate change a northern problem with a southern victim .................... 9Need for appropriate local renewables for poverty alleviation .............. 10Pro-poor Policy Agenda ......................................................................... 12Case examples1. Climate, biomass cooking and health (Kenya, Sudan, Nepal) ....... 162. The success of community hydro-power in Kenya influencingenergy policy ................................................................................... 173. Micro hydro Revolving Fund in Peru ............................................... 184. Integrated water and power supply project, Zimbabwe .................. 19Powering Poverty Reduction – ITDG, May 20043Executive summary‘In bringing together the key decision-makers from the fields of energy,environment, development and planning, the conference will address keychallenges in sustainable development such as access to energy for the poorand the protection of the global climate.’Renewables 20041The ministerial conference Rewenables 2004 being held in Bonn on 1-4 Juneprovides an opportunity to reach ‘win-win’ results on reducing poverty andprotecting the environment. The conference must commit to clear poverty-focused targets for increasing poor people’s access to energy. Theinternational community needs to make appropriate, affordable anddecentralised energy services available to the poor if it is to achieve theMillennium Development Goals. Failure to grasp this opportunity will furthermarginalize the world’s poorest people from the benefits of energytechnology and put further pressure on the planet’s dwindling resources.More than a third of humanity, 2.4 billion people, use biomass – wood, dung,crop waste – for their basic energy needs; cooking. By 2030 this will increaseto 2.6 billion.2 The burning of this fuel in poorly ventilated homes isresponsible for the deaths of 1.6 million people a year, mainly children andwomen3. In Africa 80 per cent of the population rely on primarily on biomassfor their domestic needs. More than a century after the invention of the light bulb, a quarter ofhumanity, 1.6 billion people, have no access to electricity. Some 99 per centof these people live in developing countries. Four our five of them live in ruralareas. On current trends this will still be 1.4 billion people without electricityby 2030. Modern renewable energy technologies can expand the energy choicesavailable to the millions of people living without electricity or clean fuels. Theycan also offer a mix of decentralised energy sources to increase energysecurity as well as economic and social benefits. However, purely marketdriven and supply-led approaches to energy delivery, which promote mainlyNorthern renewable technologies, often do not reach the poor, leaving themwith insufficient resources to escape poverty. The Bonn International Conference is an ideal forum to challenge the currentinternational bias towards purely market-driven policies for renewables. ITDGis calling for international policies that consider the needs of the poor andensure that appropriate, workable and affordable renewable services arepromoted. 1 Rewenables 2004 conference announcement2 World Energy Outlook, International Energy Agency, Paris, 20023 World Health Report 2002, World Health Organisation, Geneva, 2002Powering Poverty Reduction – ITDG, May 20044Pro-poor Policy Agenda:1. Put energy at the heart of poverty reduction strategies 2. Provide aid support to sustainable energy options for the poor 3. Develop financing mechanisms to reach the grass roots4. Increase national capacity for sustainable energy 5. Leverage private sector partnerships to target the poor 6. Engage the poor as active partners in delivering change7. Best practice knowledge sharingPowering Poverty Reduction – ITDG, May 20045Why Renewables 2004 must address povertyGoals for a sustainable energy future in developing countries must befocused on achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.Energy is the lifeblood of human society and economics. It cooks the food weeat. It heats our schools. It lights our hospitals. It powers our industries. Itkeeps us warm – or cool – in our homes. And for a majority of theindustrialised world, turning on a light switch is something that rarely, if ever,requires conscious thought. Yet over 1.6 billion people 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 improved energy services toincrease production and income, create jobs and reduce drudgery. Improvinghealth and reducing death rates will not happen without energy for therefrigeration needed for vaccination campaigns and electric lighting formaternity services. The world’s greatest child killer, acute lower respiratoryinfection, will not be tackled without dealing with smoke from cooking fires inthe home. Children will not study at night without light in their homes. Waterwill not be pumped or treated without energy. Failure of centralised energy to reach millions ofthe poor‘In all but the largest developing countries, the planning and implementationof large hydro projects are dominated by foreign consultants and contractors.The low-income majorities in these countries see few if any benefits fromlarge hydro projects.’International Rivers Network 4Achieving the Millennium Development Goals means reaching the poorestand most isolated communities. Most of these people are in rural areas,though there is an increasing marginalised urban population who have noaccess to basic services. For many millions of