Residential Energy in the Third World

Abstract

The residential energy sector in developing countries has become the focus of increasing concern and attention. This is partly because of its great size within national energy budgets, but also because, in most poorer Third World countries, the social and economic costs of supplying it with energy are high and are rising rapidly. Data from 15 country assessments by the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank show that households account for 30-95% of total energy use, compared to 25-30% for industrialized countries ( 1). In low-income sub-Saharan Africa the proportions range from more than 50% to 95% (2). The highest proportions are found in poorer countries where house­ holds depend almost exclusively on biomass fuels.l In many places woodfuel resources are dwindling rapidly, owing mainly to deforestation for cropping and grazing land, but also to commercial logging, uncontrolled burning and, in some places, cutting for fuel. Consequently, for many of the two billion or so mostly poor people who depend on biomass fuels, the costs of meeting basic energy needs-in cash or in time spent gathering the fuels-impose severe and increasing stresses on already fragile household survival and production strategies. The implications reach far beyond energy itself. Most tree and other