Powering Cities in the Global South: How Energy Access for All Benefits the Economy and the Environment. Michael I. Westphal

Transcription

1 Powering Cities in the Global South: How Energy Access for All Benefits the Economy and the Environment Michael I. Westphal

2

3 OUTLINE Research question The importance of energy to the city Key energy challenges facing cities in the global South 3 solutions to the urban energy challenges What can be done to accelerate these solutions? Conclusions

4 RESEARCH QUESTION How can cities in the global South provide cleaner, more affordable, and more reliable energy services for the under-served while achieving economic prosperity and safeguarding environmental quality?

5 THE IMPORTANCE OF ENERGY FOR THE CITY Energy fuels the economy

6 KEY ENERGY CHALLENGES FACING CITIES IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH 1. Energy access, reliability, and affordability remain vexing and overlooked urban problems In low-income and sub-saharan African countries only 58% and 72% had electricity in million urban residents used solid cooking fuels in 2012, > 40% in sub-saharan Africa Often unreliable grid with a lot of waste -15% of electricity in much of the global South is lost during T & D Poor households in global South can spend nearly a quarter their income on energy

7 Lack of access to energy critical in Sub-Saharan Africa

8 KEY ENERGY CHALLENGES FACING CITIES IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH 2. Rapidly growing regions in the global South face potentially unsustainable growth in energy demand

9 Growth in electricity consumption outpacing population growth

10 KEY ENERGY CHALLENGES FACING CITIES IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH 3. Rapidly growing regions cannot continue to replicate past models of development Air quality is a major public health concern - South Asian megacities have at least 2x the PM2.5 concentrations of cities in the global North, such as New York, Paris, or London Climate imperative means that all cities including those in global South will need to act Source: Stockholm Environment Institute

11 KEY ENERGY CHALLENGES FACING CITIES IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH

12 THREE URBAN ENERGY SOLUTIONS 1. Accelerate the shift to cleaner cooking Expanding the use of modern cooking fuels, LPG, ethanol, biogas, and electricity and promoting the use of low-emission and efficient cookstoves for solid fuels -> no one stove approach to cooking Easier to tackle in urban areas than rural areas - cities have the infrastructure and density to allow for distribution network Benefits to under-served: Energy intervention with the greatest public health impact 550,000 premature deaths might have occurred in urban areas in 2010 due to household use of solid cooking fuels. Time and fuel savings, productivity benefits for informal sector Benefits to city: reduced outdoor air pollution, GHG emission reductions, fiscal savings (kerosene subsidies) A number of examples of strong govt action LPG in Brazil and Indonesia, electric stoves in Ecuador New promising consumer finance models in Africa PAYG finance

13 Modern fuels bring dramatic reductions in PM

14 THREE URBAN ENERGY SOLUTIONS 2. Scale up distributed renewable energy within cities The 19th century approach of grid connection cannot alone solve the problem of energy access in the global South. Distributed RE, especially rooftop solar, complementary with traditional grid approach Rooftop solar could provide 30% of urban electricity needs in 2050 Benefits to under-served: address access, especially in informal areas, grid reliability, cost savings compared to diesel generation Users not just consumers, but they can be prosumers Benefits to city: avoided costs of new transmission, reduced electricity demand, reduced GHG emissions, energy security and resilience, local business development Solar revolution in Africa in 2015 doubling of households using PAYG

15 The cost of solar PV systems is declining rapidly

16 THREE URBAN ENERGY SOLUTIONS 3. Increase energy efficiency via measures that include building codes for new construction and energy-efficiency standards for appliances Using the best available individual household appliances and equipment can reduce energy costs by 40 to 50% Building energy efficiency measures can reduce energy use by up to 50 to 90% in new buildings and 50 to 75% in existing buildings. Benefits to under-served: cost savings, increased productivity, reduced respiratory diseases and heat-related illnesses. Benefits to city: increased energy productivity, reduced need for new capacity, cost savings, air pollution reductions where cities rely on dirty grid, greatest potential to reduce emissions reductions and increase resilience Good examples of S & L programs in global South that have resulted in large savings (Ghana, Mexico) Tianjin, China has enacted own stricter building code

17

18 WHAT CAN BE DONE TO ACCELERATE THESE SOLUTIONS? Need the necessary enablers of institutions and governance, policy, and finance All actors must play a role - including national, state, and local governments, the development community, and NGOs Cities need to lead by example RE and EE policies, enforcement of regulations, make land available for RE, EE in municipal buildings, training, community engagement National governments need to adopt complementary policies fossil fuel subsidy reform, RE national policies DFIs should advocate for these solutions as essential for SDG 7 and SDG 11 and expand finance to help address social costs of energy consumption The private sector needs to continue developing consumer financer models that address affordability

19 CONCLUSIONS Cities have a large and essential role to play in providing clean, affordable, and reliable energy to all their residents. Cities in the global South are already acting Over 300 cities in global South have signed on to the Compact of Mayors. Cities have adopted RE policies - Cape Town and Bangalore have started net metering programs; Delhi has developed a roof rental model for solar. Tianjin has developed its own ambitious building energy efficiency building code above and beyond the national code. Trends are promising The costs of PV and battery storage have been declining nonlinearly Proliferation of consumer finance models

20 THANK YOU