Development banks urged to put more energy into power for poor

The World Bank and other major development banks are investing far too little in getting electric power to poor people around the globe, and should allocate at least half their energy budgets to such projects, environmental groups said on Thursday.

Some 1.1 billion people, one in seven of the world’s population, still lack access to electricity. New global goals agreed this year set a target for everybody to have access to “affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy” by 2030.

In a report issued as the World Bank spring meetings began in Washington DC, the Sierra Club and Oil Change International said top development banks had made little progress in their overall contribution to achieving that goal in the past two years.

“For far too long, massive centralized power plants and expanding the grid have been the default approach in addressing energy poverty – a strategy which has clearly failed to reach the world’s poorest,” said Alex Doukas of Oil Change International.

The African Development Bank and the Asian Development Bank dedicated the highest proportion of their energy portfolios to energy access, at just over a quarter each in the three fiscal years 2012 to 2014, according to the report.

The World Bank allocated 10 percent of its energy investment to access over that period, while the Inter-American Development Bank’s share was just under 6 percent, the report showed.

“There’s still time to reach the world’s goal of eliminating energy poverty by 2030 if these institutions act fast to rebalance their budgets toward what’s needed,” said Vrinda Manglik of the Sierra Club’s International Climate and Energy Campaign. Read More…