Reducing poverty can actually lower energy demand, finds research:
[...] We found that households that do have access to clean fuels, safe water, basic education and adequate food—that is, those not in extreme poverty—can use as little as half the energy of the national average in their country.
This is important, as it goes directly against the argument that more resources and energy will be needed for people in the global south to escape extreme poverty. The biggest factor is the switch from traditional cooking fuels, like firewood or charcoal, to more efficient (and less polluting) electricity and gas.
In Zambia, Nepal and Vietnam, modern energy resources are extremely unfairly distributed—more so than income, general spending, or even spending on leisure. As a consequence, poorer households use more dirty energy than richer households, with ensuing health and gender impacts. Cooking with inefficient fuels consumes a lot of energy, and even more when water needs to be boiled before drinking.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday June 06 2021, @09:02AM
Many people in the rural (and a few not so rural) U.S. have large LPG tanks in the back yard rather than a gas pipe, it seems to work OK. Part of the electrical system is the way it is in the 1st world because it was dictated by the technology available when it was put in. Perhaps the deeveloping world can take advaitage of the many advances that have happened since then.