Energy governance and poverty (original) (raw)
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Sub-Saharan Africa is generally one of the most electricity deprived regions in the world. Since the 1990s, the World Bank and other relevant and respected multilateral organisations have consistently advocated that the required finance to develop sub-Saharan Africa's essential electricity capacity should be sourced from the private sector. However, despite this ongoing advocacy, the private sector has been unenthusiastic to answer this call. Much of the literature attributes this reticence to a lack of ‘good governance’: principally negative behaviours such as corruption. Instead, in this paper we argue that this is too simplistic an explanation, as private investment has still been able to thrive in other locations where such negative behaviours have existed. To support this argument, we utilise an interdisciplinary approach to review three separate academic governance perspectives, to deliver a more comprehensive view. These are: 1) Financial Investment Governance, the private sector investor's perspective, which focuses on the rules and institutions (or lack of) that directly influence the financial investment environment; 2) Political Governance, the political economy perspective, which relates to the negative, indirect investment consequences resulting from the way that governments govern; and 3) Technological Governance, a ‘systems’ perspective, which encompasses how the standard structure and organisation of the wider electricity delivery system in each country, negatively impacts such investment. In discussion and conclusion, we find that if the development policy perspective for delivering electricity access to the region is to be successfully constructed around private investment, as the multilateral development community advocates, it will need to accommodate 15 distinct issues that can be identified from this comprehensive review of governance.
Paradigms and poverty in global energy policy: research needs for achieving universal energy access
This research letter discusses elements of a long-term interdisciplinary research effort needed to help ensure the maximum social, economic, and environmental benefits of achieving secure universal access to modern energy services. Exclusion of these services affects the lives and livelihoods of billions of people. The research community has an important, but not yet well-defined, role to play.
Energy security, poverty, and sovereignty: Complex interlinkages and compelling implications
Energy security, energy poverty and energy sovereignty are all too frequently explored from separate perspectives. In this chapter, we explore the complex interlinkages between them, and tease out implications for contemporary energy analysis and policymaking. Energy poverty is framed in the literature as lack of access to electricity networks and dependence on solid fuels for cooking. We expand this definition by adding lack of access to energy services. Energy security is conceptualized as minimizing the vulnerability of vital energy systems and enabling the provision of energy services. Energy sovereignty is concerned with decision making and enabling people to follow certain energy use patterns. Furthermore, energy sovereignty emphasizes the role of local people and their institutions in determining their energy systems in ways that are culturally relevant and ecologically sustainable. In the first three sections of this chapter, we explore the three key overlapping concepts – energy poverty, energy security, and energy sovereignty – individually, and in the final section explain how they interact, and what this interaction means both for scholars interested in energy as well as for policymakers and planners seeking to address energy problems.
Energy Governance Structures of Developing Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa
2023
Decentralized off-grid energy systems from renewable energy sources hold significant prospects for Sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA) energy sector, its socio-economic development, and climate change mitigation efforts. This thesis evaluates the energy governance structures of developing countries in SSA, namely, examining Ghana’s small-scale off-grid electricity provision scheme. If successfully installed, renewable off-grid electricity structures can provide electricity to around 600 million people in SSA residing in rural areas, improve their livelihood, and help countries achieve their renewable energy targets by reducing emissions. Electricity provision holds a crucial place in the energy security and transition debate. Using a multi-level perspective (MLP) framework, the study analyzes electricity provision dynamics and governance structures. The thesis shows that Ghana’s carbon-intensive electricity regime has affected energy transition efforts and delayed a greener transition. This delay has occurred despite the presence of political will and commitment towards renewable energy at the regime level. Likewise, rural off-grid policymaking’s top-down and state-led nature has hindered local niche innovations and community involvement and made the projects’ sustainability subject to inquiry. Furthermore, even though finance is critical to reaching the Sustainable Development Goals and overcoming developing countries’ investment gap, the investment climate at the landscape level has pushed developing countries into a carbon-intensive path and postponed net-zero targets. The data for the study is obtained through primary and secondary sources. Interviews were conducted and journal articles and relevant literature were examined. By studying decentralized energy governance structures of developing countries in SSA, this paper makes two contributions to the literature. First, it shows that the regime and landscape levels are not monolithic and rigid entities but are vibrant and open to change. Second, the maintenance and sustainability of the projects are as essential as deploying the projects. Thus, without implementing a holistic approach involving communities and private sectors, the efforts fail to achieve their purposes.
Analysis of energy governance in Southern Africa
Polityka Energetyczna, 2022
The poor energy situation in most African countries manifests itself in very low access to energy and high energy poverty. To address these problems, and drive towards achieving universal energy access, African nations have, in recent time, directed attention to governance issues in energy resource development through building relevant institutions, strengthening legal frameworks, designing policies, ensuring cooperation, and harnessing investments. The concern for a governance approach to energy development is partly due to the submission that the core reason for poor energy delivery is ineffective energy governance. This study is based on Southern Africa and intends to examine the current energy access situation and explore the existing energy governance initiatives. The study used three measures of energy access (national, rural and urban) and energy consumption in order to examine the existing energy situation. The governance actions were examined by looking at national energy policies, energy partnerships (private sector, development partners), and sub-regional power pools. The study observes that the generally poor energy situation in Africa is evident in the Southern African countries. Governance actions are found to be multisource and multilevel. While these actions confirm the seriousness of the stakeholders in addressing the poor energy situation; results have been minimal. Thus, there is a need for more vigorous efforts in implementing the 74 energy policies, engaging the private sector and creating productive cooperation among energy delivery stakeholders.
The political economy of energy poverty: A review of key challenges
Energy for Sustainable Development, 2012
This review specifically investigates the concepts of energy poverty and energy ladders. It provides the most current available data on energy poverty, electrification, and dependency on biomass fuels for cooking. It elaborates on the relationship between energy access and millennium development goals, especially the connection between modern energy services and development, public health, gender empowerment, and the degradation of the natural environment. It notes that energy poverty has serious and growing public health concerns related to indoor air pollution, physical injury during fuelwood collection, and lack of refrigeration and medical care in areas that lack electricity. It argues that energy poverty affects both the gender roles within society and the educational opportunities available to children and adults. It documents that the environmental impacts of energy poverty encompass deforestation and changes in land use, as well as the emission of greenhouse gases. The final section of the review underscores the structural elements of the global energy system that entrench and sustain energy poverty.
The politics of energy and sustainable development in Sub-Saharan Africa
Oxford Handbook of Energy Politics, 2019
The global sustainable development agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), places energy systems-technologies to improve energy access, increase renewable energy generation, and tap energy efficiency-at its core to deliver what the United Nations General Assembly envisaged to be sustainable development for "people, prosperity and planet." But a fourth "p"-for politics-needs to be enmeshed in this framework. This chapter maps the extant literature on the connections between the politics of energy systems and sustainable development in sub-Saharan Africa, a region where most of the world's energy poor live. A focus on the politics of energy and sustainable development for people, prosperity, and planet remains a rich, yet understudied, frontier for future research. This chapter suggests an inclusive, interdisciplinary, and influential research agenda.
2022
Energy poverty is pervasive with significant health and well-being ramifications, especially for the Global South (United Nations Environment Program [UNEP], 2021). Energy-impoverished communities are those that are dependent on traditional solid fuels and flammable hydrocarbons that are usually burnt in unsafe, inefficient and polluting stoves. The health and economic consequences are far-reaching, primarily through household air pollution, burn injuries and poisonings, with consequential health, neurological and psychological outcomes (Haagsma, et al., 2016; Wolf, Prüss-Ustün & Vickers, 2016). The socioeconomic ramifications of the energy burden are enormous and generate social exclusion while limiting development in the affected countries (Guzowski, Martin & Zabaloy, 2021). With the accumulation of evidence of the impact of energy impoverishment, there have been increasing calls for expedited and inclusive transitions to safe and health-promotive energy. For such transitions to be truly just, they must centre on the needs of energy-impoverished people to ensure that no one is left behind (UNEP, 2021). There is also increasing consensus that access to safe and clean domestic energy is pivotal, if not a prerequisite, for a range of other global priorities beyond health, including environmental protection and sustainability, economic development and gender equality (Wolf et al., 2016). The significance of clean energy is highlighted in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with
Living with Energy Poverty: Perspectives from the Global North and South
Living with Energy Poverty: Perspectives from the Global North and South, 2024
Living with Energy Poverty: Perspectives from the Global North and South expands our collective understanding of energy poverty and deepens our recognition of the phenomenon by engaging with the lived experiences of energy-poor households across different contexts. Understanding the lived experience of energy poverty is an essential component in the design of any effort to alleviate what is fundamentally a deep-rooted, multi-faceted, wickedly complex problem. This requires a nuanced understanding of the causal factors and the research methods that can respond to the flexible spatial and temporal nature of the condition, as well as its wellbeing and justice implications. Drawing together the expertise and connectedness of authors from the Global South and North, this book presents novel approaches to understanding the often hidden forms of domestic energy deprivation. Case studies from 20 countries provide critical perspectives on this phenomenon while analysing the policy practices, government strategy, and sustainability implications of divergent manifestations. The book takes a multidimensional perspective, challenging the bias towards energy production and service provision, which often do not align with the aspirations and realities of energy households across global contexts, thus facilitating a useful dialogue on the nature of energy poverty. The book is a timely source for policymakers, practitioners, and scholars seeking fresh, diverse insights into the everyday reality of energy poverty and wanting to better understand the challenges a people-centred, just energy transition can present.