Renewables could help save 182 million lives

LONDON, England, May 24, 2006 (Refocus Weekly)

The increased use of renewable energies could help to save 182 million potential deaths in sub-Saharan Africa alone.

“Climate change is threatening development goals for billions of the world’s poorest people, with a clear danger that recent gains in reducing poverty will be thrown into reverse in coming decades,” warns Christian Aid in its report, ‘The climate of poverty: facts, fears & hope.’ The report calls on the British government to lead rich countries in taking urgent action to curb global warming, noting that 182 million people could die by the end of the century from diseases directly attributable to climate change while many millions more face death and devastation due to climate-induced floods, famine, drought and conflict.

“There are concrete actions that can be taken to help people work their way out of poverty without risking further climate change and its associated threats,” it explains, and offers a model for “a different kind of development, one not fuelled by an ever-increasing use of carbon-based energy, such as oil or coal.”

“Renewable energy could provide radical improvements to the lives of some of the world’s poorest and most marginalised people, tangible benefits delivered on a timescale of months not decades,” it continues. The report also engages in ‘blue sky’ thinking to illustrate how renewable energy could make sub-Saharan Africa a net exporter of sustainable power in the future, which would alleviate many economic problems, while providing a solution to the rich world’s insatiable desire for power.

Renewables could provide lights for schools or small businesses, “creating new opportunities especially for women,” and provide power for water pumps to eliminate the daily trek to the nearest well. They could provide refrigeration to allow vital vaccines and drugs to be kept safely, and the “real alternatives” show how communities “can aspire to a better future, without repeating the destructive mistakes of the rich, industrialised world.”

“The cycle of poverty-related environmental degradation is very difficult to break,” and most developing nations are heavily dependent on charcoal for their energy and, “as the poor get poorer, there is little chance of investing in alternatives.” Nearly all industrial production relies on wood-based products for fuel and “altering that dependence would require significant assistance to help households and factories use alternative energy sources.”

“Renewable energy could not only fuel cleaner growth in poorer countries but also present some startling and positive opportunities for a different kind of development,” it explains. “The potential to use renewables to enhance the lives of nearly a third of the world’s population who currently live without electricity is immense and at the heart of Christian Aid’s pro-poor analysis of how to respond to the challenge of climate change.”

“Given the terrible costs involved, sub-Saharan Africa, along with the rest of the world, needs to wean itself away from this dependence on fossil fuels,” it notes. “Long the poor relation in any discussion about energy use and development, the time has now come for renewable energy to claim its rightful place at the top of the agenda.”

“Christian Aid believes that tapping non-carbon sources of power like solar, wind, hydro, biofuels and geothermal, as well as using existing energy more efficiently, is essential if developing countries are to escape the twin dangers of climate change and poverty,” it concludes. The report explains that poor people have a right to life and have the right to emit carbon “just as those countries that are now wealthy have and continue to do.”

“Renewable energy technology and energy-saving measures (for households, communities, cities and countries) are already available,” but the overwhelming challenge is the high upfront cost of renewables. “Governments of rich countries must intervene to fund research and development on renewables” while the World Bank and International Monetary Fund must increase funding of renewables in poor countries.

“Rich-country governments must phase out the massive public subsidies they give to fossil-fuel industries,” which amount to US$73 billion per year in the last decade. One estimate calculates that providing solar electricity to a village of 50 houses would cost $25,000, which works out to $100 per person in sub-Saharan Africa. With 500 million people in the region without electricity, the report says the total cost would be $50 billion which “compares favourably with the amount the region is likely to have to spend on oil over the next decade.”


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