Submitted by Bryan Schaaf on Wed, 03/18/2009 - 17:45.
Two billion people, a quarter of the world’s population, lack access to electricity. Forget Blackberrys, the latest iPod, or even microwaves; in many areas throughout Latin America, Africa and Central Asia, turning on a light bulb can be impossible.
Last summer, I had the opportunity to see what life without electricity entails when I spent a month in a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees camp in Tanzania to conduct research. As I walked village to village across the camp, I came across a large solar panel, which I was told was purchased and owned by a small group of refugees.
This photovoltaic panel provided the group with electricity throughout the day and into the evening, and safeguarded its women from venturing out in perilous areas – risking being robbed, assaulted, abducted, raped, and even murdered – in search of firewood. The solar panel also considerably reduced the group’s ecological footprint.
The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization predicts that 84 percent of Africans will endure wood shortages by the end of the decade. Faced with finite natural resources, rising food costs and the reality of climate change, how can developing countries survive these challenges, let alone achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015?
Perhaps the answer lies in this very statement: the same tools that address climate change and energy-efficiency can be used to promote human security. In other words, solar, wind, and other renewable energy technologies can be employed to respond to climate change and resource-depletion, and as instruments that facilitate the achievement of the MDGs.
Solar energy in particular offers myriad possibilities to constructively address the problems faced in developing countries. Unlike biofuels that can increase the cost of food, solar powered drip-irrigation systems allow farmers to optimize the productivity of plants and crops, reducing the cost of food. This approach advances MDG 1: the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger.
MDG 2 aims to achieve universal primary education, yet thousands of schools throughout the developing world are paralyzed without electricity – 16,000 schools in South Africa alone. Greater reliance on solar energy would offer more students access to lighted classrooms and modern-day technologies such as projectors, photocopy machines and computers.
Rather than spending several hours a day in search of firewood, often in dangerous conditions, women can efficiently prepare foods using solar ovens. Made of simple materials such as cardboard and aluminum foil, solar ovens cost anywhere from $10 to $100, and unlike the incineration of firewood, they do not emit indoor air pollutants. In this fashion, solar ovens empower women, a goal identified by MDG 3.
MDGs 4, 5, and 6: reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and eradicating HIV/AIDS and malaria would benefit from solar technologies. Thousands of hospitals and clinics in developing countries as well as mobile medical units that can travel throughout remote and rural areas can be powered by the sun; delivering urgently needed medical care. Solar technologies can also disinfect, purify, desalinate and pump water in areas without treatment facilities, which also addresses these health related goals.
Renewable and energy-efficiency technologies are crucial instruments for sustainable development. But as Achim Steiner of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) recently stated, these technologies have often been ignored. “Investments will soon be pouring back into the global economy,” he said. “The question is whether they go into the old, extractive, short-term economy of yesterday or a new green economy that will deal with multiple challenges while generating multiple economic opportunities for the poor and the well-off alike.”
With the Obama administration’s pledge to invest in clean energy and the active involvement of institutions such as the United States Agency for International Development and the UN, renewable energy programs can provide real opportunities for developing countries and a chance to promote peace and stability through global partnerships. These collective activities directly support MDGs 7 and 8.
The lack of clean and adequate energy is a common denominator behind global challenges such as climate change, resource depletion and inadequate healthcare delivery Meeting these challenges should begin by developing more efficient energy production, a strategy that also advances the Millenium Development Goals.
Monya Kian is a member of UNA-USA San Diego and is a certified mediator active in the energy efficiency field. She received a BA in International Studies from the University of Washington, MA in Peace and Justice Studies from the University of San Diego, and holds a Diplôme from L’Institute d’Études Politiques de Paris in France.
Solar Solutions to the MDGs (Monya Kian)
Two billion people, a quarter of the world’s population, lack access to electricity. Forget Blackberrys, the latest iPod, or even microwaves; in many areas throughout Latin America, Africa and Central Asia, turning on a light bulb can be impossible.
Last summer, I had the opportunity to see what life without electricity entails when I spent a month in a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees camp in Tanzania to conduct research. As I walked village to village across the camp, I came across a large solar panel, which I was told was purchased and owned by a small group of refugees.
This photovoltaic panel provided the group with electricity throughout the day and into the evening, and safeguarded its women from venturing out in perilous areas – risking being robbed, assaulted, abducted, raped, and even murdered – in search of firewood. The solar panel also considerably reduced the group’s ecological footprint.
The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization predicts that 84 percent of Africans will endure wood shortages by the end of the decade. Faced with finite natural resources, rising food costs and the reality of climate change, how can developing countries survive these challenges, let alone achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015?
Perhaps the answer lies in this very statement: the same tools that address climate change and energy-efficiency can be used to promote human security. In other words, solar, wind, and other renewable energy technologies can be employed to respond to climate change and resource-depletion, and as instruments that facilitate the achievement of the MDGs.
Solar energy in particular offers myriad possibilities to constructively address the problems faced in developing countries. Unlike biofuels that can increase the cost of food, solar powered drip-irrigation systems allow farmers to optimize the productivity of plants and crops, reducing the cost of food. This approach advances MDG 1: the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger.
MDG 2 aims to achieve universal primary education, yet thousands of schools throughout the developing world are paralyzed without electricity – 16,000 schools in South Africa alone. Greater reliance on solar energy would offer more students access to lighted classrooms and modern-day technologies such as projectors, photocopy machines and computers.
Rather than spending several hours a day in search of firewood, often in dangerous conditions, women can efficiently prepare foods using solar ovens. Made of simple materials such as cardboard and aluminum foil, solar ovens cost anywhere from $10 to $100, and unlike the incineration of firewood, they do not emit indoor air pollutants. In this fashion, solar ovens empower women, a goal identified by MDG 3.
MDGs 4, 5, and 6: reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and eradicating HIV/AIDS and malaria would benefit from solar technologies. Thousands of hospitals and clinics in developing countries as well as mobile medical units that can travel throughout remote and rural areas can be powered by the sun; delivering urgently needed medical care. Solar technologies can also disinfect, purify, desalinate and pump water in areas without treatment facilities, which also addresses these health related goals.
Renewable and energy-efficiency technologies are crucial instruments for sustainable development. But as Achim Steiner of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) recently stated, these technologies have often been ignored. “Investments will soon be pouring back into the global economy,” he said. “The question is whether they go into the old, extractive, short-term economy of yesterday or a new green economy that will deal with multiple challenges while generating multiple economic opportunities for the poor and the well-off alike.”
With the Obama administration’s pledge to invest in clean energy and the active involvement of institutions such as the United States Agency for International Development and the UN, renewable energy programs can provide real opportunities for developing countries and a chance to promote peace and stability through global partnerships. These collective activities directly support MDGs 7 and 8.
The lack of clean and adequate energy is a common denominator behind global challenges such as climate change, resource depletion and inadequate healthcare delivery Meeting these challenges should begin by developing more efficient energy production, a strategy that also advances the Millenium Development Goals.
Monya Kian is a member of UNA-USA San Diego and is a certified mediator active in the energy efficiency field. She received a BA in International Studies from the University of Washington, MA in Peace and Justice Studies from the University of San Diego, and holds a Diplôme from L’Institute d’Études Politiques de Paris in France.