Energy for All Initiative
Energy for All is the name of an initiative and partnership both initiated by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to meet the challenge of energy poverty in Asia and the Pacific.
The majority of the energy poor live in Asia and the Pacific: More than 800 million people still have no access to electricity. Almost 2 billion people still burn wood, dung, and crop waste to cook and to heat their homes. This persistent energy poverty has hampered efforts to reduce poverty and meet the Millennium Development Goals. Access to modern, cleaner energy is essential to cut indoor air pollution; improve infant and maternal health, education, and agriculture; and ensure inclusive, sustainable development.
To strengthen its investment and increase its project portfolio in energy access, ADB founded The Energy for All Initiative in 2008. The initiative develops and mainstreams approaches for scaling up access to affordable, modern and clean energy among the region’s poor. This includes household access to electricity from renewable energy technologies such as micro-hydro, solar, biomass, and small wind power, as well as access to clean cooking fuel, such as LPG or biogas from livestock manure.
Within the initiative, ADB launched the Energy for All Partnership, a regional platform for cooperation, knowledge and technical exchange and project developing bringing together key stakeholders from private sector, financial institutions, governments, bilateral, multilateral and non-governmental development partners. The partnership seeks to identify and support energy access projects with demonstrated potential to scale up through implementation structures that enable projects to grow from a pioneering stage to national or regional scale .
The Partnership aims to provide access to safe, clean, affordable modern energy to an additional 100 million people in the region by 2015.
Working Groups:
The partnership formed seven working groups to meet specific geographic, technological, or thematic challenges to replicating successful models and scaling up access to energy for the poor .
DOMESTIC BIOGAS
Convener: SNV Netherlands Development Organisation
Target: Deploy 1 million domestic biogas plants for 5 million people and develop sustainable commercial biogas sectors in 15 countries in Asia and the Pacific by 2016.
LIGHTING FOR ALL
Convener: TERI
Target: Expand access to off-grid lighting solutions for 50 million people by 2015.
LIQUEFIED PETROLEUM GAS (LP Gas)
Convener: World LP Gas Association
Target: Expand distribution of LP Gas to remote communities while creating sustainable markets.
ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT
Convener: Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS)
Target: Develop clean energy enterprises in the region through public-private partnership models and a network of industry associations, institutions and relevant government bodies.
PACIFIC REGION
Convener: Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP)
Target: Scale up proven models for energy access and disseminate successful approaches throughout the Pacific island countries.
SMALL WIND POWER
Convener: Korea Wind Energy Industry Association
Target: Deploy small wind power for electrification and productive use in remote areas in Asia and the Pacific region.
Source:
1. IEA (2010). Energy Poverty - How to make modern energy access universal? - Special Excerpt to the World Energy Outlook 2010. http://www.iea.org/weo/docs/weo2010/weo2010_poverty.pdf
2. http://www.adb.org/clean-energy/energyforall-initiative.asp
3. http://www.adb.org/Clean-Energy/energyforall-partnership.asp
4. http://www.energyforall.info
