Page - 20 - in options, Volume summer 2015

20 options + summer 2015 www.iiasa.ac.at A ccess to reliable energy sources, especially electricity, is identified by the United Nations as a key factor in lifting the world’s poorest out of poverty. But as the world grapples with greenhouse gas emissions, is there a looming conflict between fighting climate change and reducing poverty? Recent and upcoming research by IIASA scientists will help policymakers on the front line of development and climate change to understand this complex issue. With funding from the European Research Council (ERC) IIASA Research Scholar Narasimha D. Rao is about to embark on a project exploring the relationships between energy, poverty, and climate change. Rao says policymakers first need to understand poverty and “rigorously articulate” what is meant by the term “decent living standards.” His project will measure a set of basic living standards “that we all can agree that everyone should be entitled to.” It’s the impact of meeting the energy requirements of those living standards that Rao believes will have strong implications for national energy polices and for the global debate on climate change. “There is a lot of confusion about what impact on global greenhouse gases the eradication of poverty will have,” he says and adds that removing that confusion will have important ramifications for developing countries. Electricity and emissions Rao’s study will build on work already conducted by his colleague Shonali Pachauri, a senior energy research scholar at IIASA. “There have been discussions along the lines of poverty alleviation and climate change in the same setting for a long time now but there is no clear answer as to how the two should be reconciled,” says  Pachauri who has looked at energy developments in India over the past three decades. Her analysis shows that the number of Indian homes achieving access to electricity over that period—around 650 million people—contributed somewhere between 3% and 4% of the country’s national emissions increase. “While there are emissions associated with that electricity use, it’s still a very small fraction of the total emissions that India has,” concludes Pachauri. The researcher is keen to emphasize that the electricity consumption needed to help people out of poverty should not be compared to that associated with an affluent lifestyle. The average Indian household consumes around 900 kilowatt hours per year—“about one-tenth or less of what is consumed in the USA today.” There would be little debate about greenhouse gas emissions caused by connecting the world’s poor to electricity if that energy came from renewable sources. However, renewables are not going to be available or affordable in  all cases. “Of course we want to endorse renewable based generation wherever that’s possible but in all circumstances that’s not the least-cost solution,” says  Pachauri, who sees countries like India with abundant coal reserves continuing to tap  into them. “There is a lot of confusion about what  impact on global greenhouse gases the  eradication  of  poverty will  have.” —Narasimha D. Rao The climate–poverty conundrum Mitigating climate change and eliminating poverty need not be conflicting targets. IIASA  research aims to turn on the lights for policymakers.