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: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @01:14PM (2 children)
It's not free. They just pay for it in taxes. This means they have much less money in their bank accounts than Americans. Again, not free, just prepaid, generationally speaking. Since they lose so much money to taxes, they settle for less in their private life: small or no car, small house, etc
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @04:35PM
Less TV channels. Sucks to be EU.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday June 07 2021, @04:53PM
While they are still paying it is significantly less expensive with several layers of insurance leech removed.