The five billion persons at the lower economic levels are not only poor, but commonly use technologies that are less efficient and more polluting, wasting their money, hurting their health, polluting their cites, and increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Many first‐world researchers, including the authors, are seeking to help these persons achieve a better life by collaborating on need‐driven solutions to energy problems. Here we examine three specific examples of solutions to energy problems, and mitigation strategies in the developing world:
(1) Energy Efficiency Standards and Labeling in China. Between 1990 and 2025, China will add 675 million new urban residents, all of whom expect housing, electricity, water, transportation, and other energy services. Policies and institutions must be rapidly set up to manage the anticipated rapid rise in household and commercial energy consumption. This process has progressed from legislating, and setting up oversight of minimum energy performance standards in 1989 (now on 30 products) to voluntary efficiency labels in 1999 (now on 40 products) and to mandatory energy labels in 2005 (now on 21 products). The savings from just the standards and labels in place by 2007 would result in cumulative savings of 1188 teraWatt—hours (TWh) between 2000‐2020. By 2020, China would save 110 TWh/yr, or the equivalent of 12 gigaWatts (GW) of power operating continuously.
(2) Fuel‐efficient biomass cookstoves to reduce energy consumption and reduce pollution. Compared to traditional cooking methods in Darfur, the BDS cooks faster, reduces fuel requirement, and emits less carbon monoxide air pollution. A 2010 survey of 100 households showed that users reduced spending on fuelwood in North Darfur camps from 1/2 of household non‐fuelwood budget to less than 1/4 of that budget. The survey showed that each $20 stove puts $330/year in the pocket of the women using the stove, worth $1600 over the stove‐life of 5 years. Per capita income of these households is about $300/year.
(3) Super Efficient Appliance Deployment. Global domestic electricity consumption is expected to double in 25 years, from 5,700 TWh/yr in 2005 to 11,500 TWh/yr in 2030. The four appliances using largest shares of domestic electricity (lighting, refrigeration, air‐conditioning, television) would use some 5,000 TWh/yr in 2030, or 43% of the total, in the baseline scenario. More than 50% of this consumption will be in China, India, European Union and US. We outline efforts to save up to 1.5 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions per year in 2030 by helping deploy the most efficient commercially available technologies in these four categories. Furthermore, if this effort is extended to twenty‐four categories of appliances and equipment, the projected savings in emissions increase to 6.7 gigatons per year by 2030.
