The world is facing energy contradictions; effects of climate change are visible, but we are still using fossil fuels as the major energy source and we are still headed for increased consumption in fossil fuels in the years to come. Western economies will need an increase of more than 80% in the energy supply by 2050, and many poor countries currently have a low degree of access to reliable electrical energy. The international resources are limited and the eco-system and biological diversities are under heavy pressure. Increasing the use of sustainable energy, ensuring green growth, and meanwhile fighting poverty by generating and distributing energy in the developing countries are merely our moral duties. These topics have been discussed widely through the opening and parallel sessions at Tehnoport 2012.

Poul Engberg-Pedersen is Deputy Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Pedersen started off the session entitled “Combating poverty with environment-friendly energy” by stating that in order for energy to be viable for developing countries, it needs to be cheap, reliable, be replicable, promote equity and provide work for the poor. With the exception of biomass, all the green energy sources as they appear now are too expensive to meet these requirements, he suggests. The main target consumers of green energy should therefore be the middle and upper classes; Pedersen states “Energy for all, but not sustainable energy for all”. Supply of energy in any form, renewable or not, should be the main focus for a poor community, and that sustainability should have a lower priority than establishing access to energy. 

Mr. Shrashtant Patara. Photo: Technoport, Safura Abdiha

This “let’s-be-realistic” approach to the problem of energy demand is contradicted by Shrashtant Patara, Chief Operating Officer of Technology and Action for Rural Advancement, based in India. He gave several examples of green energy supply in villages and areas helped by his organization, such as solar modules powering a village, representing the foundation for small-scale industrial activity which can generate an income for the community; or biofuels made out of cow dung from a “nursing home” where cows go when they grow old, a common phenomenon in India. Patara also pointed out the vast use of diesel generators present inIndiaand the potential of exchanging this energy for green energy.The use of solar energy is however controversial: although the need for grid connection is avoided, the costs are high. Trond Giske, Minister of Trade and Industry inNorway, pointed out the cost of solar energy is the highest among the renewable technologies, amounting to 300€/MWh. Therefore, at the present stage it is important to ensure subsides, pollution taxes, and further technology improvements to make this technology viable. Shaikha al-Maskari, Chairperson of the Al Maskari Holding and Tricon Group, participated in the Technoport Summit. Maskari is convinced that solar is going to succeed in the long term: “just count to 10 and don’t panic”.

Other examples of environmental-friendly contributions in poor countries were given by Mareike Krautheum and Ralf Pasel, architechts in PASEL-K Architects. The two architects worked on sustainable building solutions in Chileand Ghana. They created a sustainable and social complex of habitations where the available space is limited, at a low cost. In particular, the project in Chile was to provide 150 families with 30m² each at a maximum of 7500 US$ and only utilizing 1 hectar of land. Dr. Kamal Bawa, professor in biology at the University of Massachusetts and recent winner of the Gunnerus Sustainability award, is working with projects in India which aim to reduce poverty while maintaining the conservations and biodiversity as well as establishing micro enterprise and strengthen local institutions.

Trond Giske, minister of Trade and Industry in Norway believes that green energy solutions for the poor countries are not only driven by environmental concern, they represent also important business opportunities. Dr. Helen Marquard defines this new business model as “social environmental enterprise”. Dr. Helen Marquard has been Deputy Director atUK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. She is now Executive Director at the SEED initiative. The talks given by Shrashtant Partara, Shaikha Al Maskari, Kamaljit S. Bawa and Ralf Pasel during Technoport are examples of social environmental enterprises; green business that also helps the poor communities.

Healthy competitiveness and a competition for better solutions seems to have started. So it is up to us to enter in this race and win for a better world. What do we need to do to succeed in an environmental enterprise? Helen Macquort and Bard Vegar Solheim, Norwegian Minister of the Environment, agree that it is all about the cooperation of government, technology, science and community. It is important to know the social context and its potential, to have access to different technologies and  share them, to create research partners and to develop incentives as well as mechanism to stimulate it. It is therefore necessary to collect a pool of business and environmental as well as technological skills, and the solutions have to be taken at local level such as villages and communities, because a global impact will be generated from the single: “Think globally – Act locally”.