The Winds of Change

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While the developed nations debate how to fuel their power plants, however, some 1.6 billion people--a quarter of the globe's population--have no access to electricity or gasoline. They cannot refrigerate food or medicine, pump well water, power a tractor, make a phone call or turn on an electric light to do homework. Many spend their days collecting firewood and cow dung, burning it in primitive stoves that belch smoke into their lungs. To emerge from poverty, they need modern energy. And renewables can help, from village-scale hydro power to household photovoltaic systems to bio-gas stoves that convert dung into fuel. More than a million rural homes in developing countries get electricity from solar cells. "The potential is enormous," says Anil Cabraal, an energy specialist for the World Bank, which has helped finance 500,000 residential solar systems from Argentina to Sri Lanka.

Ultimately, the earth can meet its energy needs without fouling the environment. "But it won't happen," asserts Thomas Johansson, an energy adviser to the United Nations Development Program, "without the political will." To begin with, widespread government subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear energy--estimated at some $150 billion per year--must be dismantled to level the playing field for renewables. Policymakers must factor in the price of pollution: coal plants are more expensive than renewable power when one includes the cost of scrubbers on smokestacks and the expense of health care for coal-related illnesses; nuclear energy costs would soar without government insurance. Environmentalists are calling for taxes on carbon to slow the growth of fossil-fuel use.

Another way to increase renewables' share of the energy mix is to reduce the use of conventional fuel through efficiency incentives. Experts estimate that efficiency could slash the globe's projected energy consumption by a third. Strict standards can cut energy use in everything from air conditioners to cars. Compact fluorescent lamps use a quarter of the electricity of incandescent bulbs to provide the same amount of light.

Governments are increasingly forcing utilities to make it easier for windmill and solar-panel owners to connect to the grid and get credit for providing extra electricity they don't use. Governments are also pressuring utilities to meet targets for renewable sources of energy. The European Union, for instance, is requiring its members to boost electricity from renewables to 22% of production within the next eight years. Brazil plans to push a global standard at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg this month.