Our High-energy Plant: A Climate Pragmatism Project

Today, over one billion people around the world -- five hundred million of them in sub-Saharan Africa alone -- lack access to electricity. Nearly three billion people cook over open fires fueled by wood, dung, coal, or charcoal. This energy poverty presents a significant hurdle to achieving developm...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Policy File 2014
Main Authors: Caine, Mark, Lloyd, Jason, Luke, Max, Margonelli, Lisa, Moss, Todd, Nordhaus, Ted, Pielke, Roger, Roman, Mikael, Roy, Joyashree, Sarewitz, Daniel, Shellenberger, Michael, Singh, Kartikeya, Trembath, Alex
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes
Energy
Environment
Science/Technology
Online Access:Request full text
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Summary:Today, over one billion people around the world -- five hundred million of them in sub-Saharan Africa alone -- lack access to electricity. Nearly three billion people cook over open fires fueled by wood, dung, coal, or charcoal. This energy poverty presents a significant hurdle to achieving development goals of health, prosperity, and a livable environment. The relationship between access to modern energy services and quality of life is well established. Faced with a perceived conflict between expanding global energy access and rapidly reducing greenhouse emissions to prevent climate change, many environmental groups and donor institutions have come to rely on small-scale, decentralized, renewable energy technologies that cannot meet the energy demands of rapidly growing emerging economies and people struggling to escape extreme poverty. A reconsideration of what equitable energy access means for human development and the environment is needed. As this paper demonstrates, a massive expansion of energy systems, primarily carried out in the rapidly urbanizing global South, in combination with the rapid acceleration of clean energy innovation, is a more pragmatic, just, and morally acceptable framework for thinking about energy access. The time has come to embrace a high-energy planet. This paper looks to history for guidance in achieving a high-energy world.