Can Self-Interest Drive Sustainable Energy for All?

Can Self-Interest Drive Sustainable Energy for All?

A bold plan to bring every person on Earth sustainable energy within 18 years will face its first test of international acceptance at the Rio+20 Earth Summit – the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in June.

The Sustainable Energy For All initiative is a flagship programme launched by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon. Its goals are to get power to the one billion people who lack electricity (and give almost three billion clean cooking technologies), to double the rate of improvement in energy efficiency and to double the share of renewables in the global energy mix. The key is not so much in developing new technologies, but scaling up and rolling out existing technologies so they reach even the very poor.