Climate and environment

Energy

Access to basic energy services remains a significant development challenge, especially in rural areas of developing countries. A quarter of the world’s population, about 1.6 billion people, have no electricity to their homes and some 2.4 billion rely on traditional biomass fuels for cooking and heating. They are deprived of a host of modern service made possible by electricity and are exposed to the significant health hazards of indoor smoke from low quality fuels.

Improved access to energy is essential to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. DFID has responded by providing funds, alongside five other Member States, for the EU Energy Initiative to help countries design energy access strategies. We have provided annual core funding to the World Bank Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme in addition to a £2.8m grant for a managed programme to promote small and medium enterprises in energy services. In 2007, we agreed to provide £4m to the Global Village Energy Partnership over 4 years to improve access to energy by poor communities, including through the development of small private enterprises, especially in Africa and South Asia.

Economic growth in many developing countries, especially in Africa, is constrained by unreliable and inadequate electricity supplies. This damages productive capacity and discourages investment, with businesses forced to use expensive emergency generators. All developing countries are striving to increase their investments in energy infrastructure in order to meet rising demand, which is forecast to increase by 45% between 2006 and 2030. About 90% of this increase will come from developing countries, and under a business-as-usual scenario fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and gas, would be the primary sources. The potential consequences for climate change, from a potential 45% increase in emissions of energy-related CO2, are a cause of great concern. There is an urgent need to find ways of meeting the increasing demand for energy services while radically reducing global energy related CO2 emissions. We need to help developing countries move onto low carbon development pathways that maximise the opportunities, while minimising the risks, associated with the transition to a low carbon global economy.

We are working to mobilise new and existing finance to help support this transition – in particular through the Climate Investment Funds – and are steadily integrating low carbon development thinking into our multilateral and bilateral programmes. For example, we are engaging with the MDBs to ensure they adopt more challenging targets on clean energy, and we are working through a number of our country offices to support low carbon growth – including in China, India, Indonesia, Malawi, and Tanzania.

• Policy Innovation Systems for Clean Energy Security
• Renewable Energy for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods
• Research4development - Energy
• DFID Climate and Environment Research from IDS Knowledge Services
• Case Study - Reducing CO2 Emissions with Family-Hydro