Breaking the Poverty-Energy Nexus- The Nexus beween Energy Import and Poverty in Developing Countries

In our modern world more than 2 billion people still have no access to modernenergy services. Without considerably improving the energy situation indeveloping countries the central Millennium Development Goal of halvingglobal poverty by 2015 will not be achieved because energy is vitally linked tonumerous important dimensions of development. When it comes to theadverse impacts of unsustainable energy use in developing countries the currentenergy-poverty debate is mainly restricted to the rural or household levelof analysis. On the whole little detailed investigations are made about thestructural economic costs associated with energy consumption patterns onthe macro or national level. This is especially the case for the great majority ofdeveloping countries that do not possess significant commercial energyresources and therefore heavily rely on fossil fuel imports to meet their energyneeds. This book is intended to contribute to the debate by offering athorough and comprehensive structural analysis of how energy import dependencyand poverty are linked at the macro level and how renewableenergy sources can help to reduce the incidence of poverty in developingcountries by mitigating import dependency. Clearly and accessibly writtenthis book is a reference for anyone involved in teaching research and thinkingabout the energy-poverty nexus in international development politics.