Michael H. Dworkin

Overcoming the global injustices of energy poverty

in Atlanta, Georgia, wakes up in the morning to an electronic alarm clock before she microwaves breakfast, takes a hot shower, grabs a latte at Starbucks, and drives her sport utility vehicle to campus— where she texts her boyfriend during class and checks e-mail on her laptop.1 Gertrude Smith, a widowed grandmother living in London, in the United Kingdom, drinks watereddown milk for breakfast (to make the carton last longer), walks everywhere, uses discarded newspapers as makeshift lampshades, and recycles her bathwater to clean dishes and clothes. She pays her energy bills with jars of coins.2 Tiemoko Sangare, a farmer in Tanzania, spends half of his day searching for wood and water and the other half manually cultivating crops. He has never had a hot shower or bath, and rises and rests according to the sun, with no indoor lighting at night. Sometimes, if his yields are good, he can afford to purchase charcoal at the local market near Dar es Salaam.3 These examples show that we are in the midst of a transformational shift in the use of energy—with some, like Joan, adopting very energy-intensive lifestyles. However, these examples also reveal that the global energy system—the backbone of modern lifestyles and economic development—reflects and also perpetuates vast inequities and inequalities. For some of us, lack of access to energy services is a mere inconvenience; for others, it is a matter of life or death. For millions today, as in Biblical times, life without an energy grid means being “cursed” as “slaves” that do little more than “heave wood and haul water.”4 Some of us consume staggering amounts of liquid fuels and electricity—and have significantly large carbon footprints—while others go completely without them and contribute almost nothing to climate change. Some of us see energy as intertwined with our ideals of comfort, cleanliness, convenience, and luxury; others see it as a source of insecurity and drudgery. Put another way, the global energy system has a Janus face; for some, it is key to living a life of good health and prosperity, and for others, energy systems are a source of daily and at times life-threating risks.5 To address the starkest energy security challenges facing households and communities in the developing world, the United Nations has declared 2012 the “International Year for Sustainable Energy for All.” This initiative seeks to engage governments, companies, and other civil society actors to achieve three goals by 2030: universal access to modern energy services, reducing global energy intensity by 40%, and increasing renewable energy use globally to 30% of total primary energy supply.6 Two of these goals—universal access and the diffusion of renewable energy systems—involve bilateral and multilateral energy development projects. After introducing readers to the problems of energy poverty, this study offers experiences from 10 such programs in the Asia Pacific that give insight into how energy and development interventions ought to be structured. by Benjamin K. Sovacool and Michael Dworkin Overcoming the Gl bal Injustices of Energy Poverty