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Escaping the Vicious Cycle of Poverty Escaping the Vicious Cycle of Poverty: Towards Universal Access to Energy in Developing Countries Arno Behrens, Glada Lahn, Eike Dreblow, Jorge Núñez Ferrer, Mathilde Carraro & Sebastian Veit* No.363/March 2012 Abstract Despite the continuous efforts of developing countries and the international community to reduce energy poverty, some 2.7 billion people around the world still rely on traditional biomass for cooking and heating and 1.3 billion people do not have access to electricity. Over 80% of the energy poor live in rural areas and roughly two thirds in sub-Saharan Africa and India. While fossil fuels will inevitably play a major role in expanding on-grid energy supply, this study shows that renewable energy sources – and especially small decentralised solutions – have huge potential for providing reliable, sustainable and affordable energy services for the poor, particularly in rural areas of developing countries. Many challenges remain, including financing, capacity-building, technology transfer and governance reforms. A careful assessment of the environmental impacts of renewable energy technologies, particularly those on water, is an important prerequisite for donor finance. With the right design, energy access projects can also bring a host of developmental co-benefits. It should be possible for international initiatives including the UN’s Year of Sustainable Energy for All and the EU’s partnership with Africa to build on the rich experience and lessons learned from pilot projects over the last two decades in order to optimise donor effectiveness in this area. * Arno Behrens is Head of Energy and Research Fellow at CEPS and lead author of this CEPS Working Document. Glada Lahn is Research Fellow at Chatham House, UK. Eike Dreblow is Researcher at Ecologic Institute, Germany. Jorge Núñez Ferrer is Associate Senior Research Fellow at CEPS. Mathilde Carraro was an Intern at CEPS. Sebastian Veit is Senior Climate Economist at the African Development Bank. CEPS Working Documents are intended to give an indication of work being conducted within CEPS’ research programmes and to stimulate reactions from other experts in the field. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent any institution with which they are affiliated. The original version of this CEPS Working Document was produced as an External Study commissioned by the Development Committee of the European Parliament. This slightly updated version is published with the kind permission of the European Parliament, which retains the copyright of this work. ISBN 978-94-6138-176-7 Available for free downloading from the CEPS website (http://www.ceps.eu) © European Parliament, 2012 Contents Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 1 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 3 2. Overview of energy access in developing countries .......................................................................... 4 2.1 Present situation of access to energy in developing countries ................................................. 5 2.1.1 Access to electricity .............................................................................................................. 5 2.1.2 Access to clean cooking facilities ....................................................................................... 6 2.2 Likely future developments without additional policies .......................................................... 7 2.3 Achieving universal access to energy in developing countries ................................................ 7 2.4 Potential requirements to fill the gap ......................................................................................... 10 2.4.1 Technology options for electricity services .................................................................... 10 2.4.2 Technology options for cooking and heating services .................................................. 11 2.4.3 Investment needs ............................................................................................................... 11 3. On-going and planned projects to improve energy access ............................................................. 12 3.1 Access to energy projects and funding trends in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia ....... 12 3.2 Three Project Case Studies ........................................................................................................... 14 3.2.1 The Lighting a Billion Lives Campaign (LaBL) in New Delhi ..................................... 14 3.2.2 Yeelen Kura in Mali: Testing the feasibility of rural energy service companies (RESCOs) ............................................................................................................................. 15 3.2.3 Grameen Shakti, Bangladesh: Microcredit to enable access to green energy and empower women................................................................................................................ 15 4. Improving access to energy by using renewable energy sources .................................................. 16 4.1 Renewable energy sources in developing countries ................................................................ 16 4.2 Capacity constraints ..................................................................................................................... 18 4.3 Special Focus: The Impact of Renewable Energies on Water Resources ............................... 19 4.3.1 Biofuels ................................................................................................................................ 20 4.3.2 Large-scale hydropower.................................................................................................... 20 4.3.3 Concentrated solar power ................................................................................................. 21 5. Financing mechanisms, the EU role and prospects for coordination ............................................ 21 5.1 Domestic finance ........................................................................................................................... 22 5.2 International level ......................................................................................................................... 23 5.2.1 New global climate investment funds ............................................................................. 23 5.3 EU Financing instruments for energy in developing countries ............................................. 24 5.4 Increasing cooperation of EU development assistance ........................................................... 25 5.5 Improving EU assistance in the area of access to energy in developing countries ............. 26 6. Conclusions and policy recommendations ....................................................................................... 26 6.1 Summary of conclusions .............................................................................................................. 28 6.2 Recommendations ........................................................................................................................ 29 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................ 30 Escaping the Vicious Cycle of Poverty: Towards Universal Access to Energy in Developing Countries CEPS Working Document No. 363/March 2012 Arno Behrens, Glada Lahn, Eike Dreblow, Jorge Núñez Ferrer, Mathilde Carraro & Sebastian Veit Executive Summary Energy services are a principal enabler for socioeconomic development. On the one hand, the ability of the world’s poor to earn a living depends on access to sustainable energy. On the other, poverty remains the key obstacle to energy access. Breaking this vicious cycle of poverty and energy access is thus essential to enable the four principle ways in which poor people earn a living: earning off the land, running a micro or small enterprise (MSE), getting a job, or earning from supplying energy (Practical Action, 2012). Yet, 133 years after Thomas Edison’s invention of the light bulb and the subsequent development of the modern electricity utility industry, some 1.3 billion people of the world remain without access to electricity. Similarly, 2.7 billion people still rely on traditional biomass for cooking and heating. Energy poverty thus affects about a third of humanity with negative impacts on health, education, productivity, gender equality and the environment. The majority of people in energy poverty live in rural areas in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Meanwhile, parts of the developing world are undergoing rapid industrialisation, population growth and rising consumer demand, which will drive unprecedented power capacity additions over the next 20 years. Much of the new and planned generation will service mainly urban and industrial regions, further widening the gap between rich and poor. Given these twin trajectories, energy poverty is receiving renewed attention amongst the international community, with an emphasis on economic, social and environmental sustainability. The United Nations declared 2012 as the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All with the goal of universal energy access by 2030. One of the highlights of this year
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