How Indoor Stoves Can Help Solve Global Poverty

Monday, October 6, 2014

Last week world leaders at the UN began a year-long conversation on global goals for the next 15 years. Many will rightly talk about poverty, food, water and environment. Few will mention energy. Yet, we should.

The use of wood and coal in steam engines kicked off the Industrial Revolution, which led to today’s prosperous, modern societies. Reliable and affordable energy is just as vital for today’s developing and emerging economies. Driven mostly by its 5-fold increase in coal use, China’s economy has grown 18-fold over the past 30 years, while lifting 680 million people out of poverty.

The energy ladder is a way of visualizing stages of development. This starts with what we call traditional biofuels: firewood, dung and crop waste. Almost 3 billion people use these for cooking and heating indoors, which is so polluting, the World Health Organization estimates they kill one in every 13 people on the planet.

The next step on the ladder is “transition fuels” such as kerosene, charcoal and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The top rung of the ladder is electricity, which thankfully makes no pollution inside your home. Because the electricity is often powered by fossil fuels, it does contribute to the problem of global warming. Hence an alluring option could be to move to clean energy, like wind, solar and hydro. Some are suggesting that developing countries should skip the fossil step and move right to clean energy.

Source: TIME (link opens in a new window)

Categories: Energy, Health Care, Technology

Tags: solar

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How Indoor Stoves Can Help Solve Global Poverty

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