08 December 2008

As German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk meet in Warsaw on 9 December to discuss so-called ‘clean coal’ technology, ActionAid’s new report A Clean Solution argues that this is the wrong approach.

The international development charity says that a clean technology fund financed by rich countries could help close the energy gap without further reliance on fossil fuels.

ActionAid policy officer Tom Sharman points out that worldwide 1.6 billion people still lack access to electricity and 2.5 billion depend on biomass, primarily wood, as their main source of cooking fuel.

He said: “Developing countries face a massive energy gap, and they will fill it with cheap and dirty power unless industrial nations act to make clean technology affordable.”

The scale of the energy gap is underlined by new statistics showing that whilst China has surpassed the US as the world’s biggest polluter in volume terms, the average carbon footprint in China is five times smaller than the average American footprint.    

Financing a switch to clean energy would also have positive spin-offs for health and gender equity, says ActionAid. Replacing wood with clean cooking fuel could reduce millions of premature deaths from smoke inhalation among women and children.

“It is imperative that we provide clean affordable energy to the world’s poorest billion who currently lack electricity. Clean technology and financing it is critical to ensuring a fair deal on climate change next year.” continued Tom Sharman.  

“The Poznan talks need to give a signal that these two issues will be on the table in Copenhagen. Currently finance is not being discussed, but the urgency of the climate crisis demands immediate action to make clean energy affordable and available to developing countries.”

ActionAid is calling on industrialized nations, the major culprits of global warming, to establish a new clean technology fund within the UN climate framework and to provide substantial new and predictable financing to the fund.