Compass

This week at a press conference for the release of the U.S. Export-Import Bank's (Ex-Im) annual report on the agency's competitiveness, Chairman Fred Hochberg called for more transparency from international Export Credit Agencies (EAC). But when we asked about increasing transparency for the billions of U.S. taxpayer financing Ex-Im allots to fossil fuel projects, we got the same, tired excuses for the Bank's undying support for dirty, outdated coal technology:

• Hochberg claimed that Ex-Im only finances coal projects in countries like South Africa with strong environmental policies already in place. However, an environmental policy is only as good as its enforcement. The Bank awarded over $800 million for the massive Kusile coal-fired power plant in South Africa, despite the fact that the plant is being built in an area that already exceeded South Africa's own limits for pollution known to cause health problems. Of course, our own environmental standards aren't always that great. Mountaintop removal coal mining is literally killing communities in Appalachia, but this May Ex-Im approved financing to export West Virginia and Pennsylvania coal and pollution abroad. Hochberg talks the talk, but he doesn't walk the walk.

Sitting in a circle on a bright Tuesday morning in central Rio, a group of bubbly Brazilian teenagers are talking sex. While not an uncommon conversation for the girls -- a group of peer educators from a favela called Cachoeirinha -- today is a little bit different. Not only is the room where they're gathered especially crowded, and filled with English accents chirping above their lyrical Portuguese, today the girls are asked questions that extend far beyond sexual health.

"What are the three most important needs in your life?" asks one of the many NGO representatives gathered around the teens, listening intently to their dialogue. The group talks amongst themselves, and finally responds: "Safety and security, job availability, and a clean environment." In a city exploding with new residents, challenged by the task of providing amenities like electricity and trash collection to its ever-growing population, with huge gaps between rich and poor and an unsettling dichotomy between the white sand beaches of Ipanema and the crowded favelas creeping up the once-green hills, the priorities of these young people ring true for each and every one of us in the room.

There's an African proverb which says "when you're dancing in the village square, it’s the onlookers who can judge whether you're dancing well or not." As the UN negotiations at Rio+20 unfold this week, youth advocates will be watching the "dance" to see if sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are recognized for their contribution to sustainable development.

Twenty of the world’s leading off-grid clean energy entrepreneurs sent a letter (bit.ly/IzuDSU) today to World Bank Group president Robert Zoellick requesting $500 million in financial commitments to help them deliver on the world’s energy access goals. The group’s letter was backed by a letter of support (bit.ly/JRLBOT) from the CEOS of more than 25 leading civil society organizations from around the world, which calls for these commitments to take the form of a pledge at the upcoming Rio+20 earth summit.

The call comes six months into the United Nations Sustainable Energy for All (UN SEFA) campaign, which seeks to deliver universal energy access by 2030. In order to make good on that pledge the International Energy Agency (IEA) has found (bit.ly/zNduXr) that half of all energy services must be provided by off-grid clean energy.

Unfortunately, today’s investments in energy access are heavily skewed toward traditional grid extension, with billions going to large scale centralized power projects which are often heavily polluting coal plants.  Worse, according to the IEA, an over reliance on these investments at the expense of off grid clean energy investments will leave one billion of the world’s poor without energy access by 2030.

“There are literally one billion reasons to change our current approach to energy access,” says Justin Guay, Washington Representative with the Sierra Club’s International Climate Program. “The World Bank has a tremendous opportunity to do just that by committing to rapidly scale up investments in off grid clean energy at Rio.”

The issue of energy access is going to be front and center at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20) in June. Delivering electricity is a key aspect of achieving this lofty goal.

The problem is our current approach - investing in large scale centralized fossil fuel power plants and stringing power lines to far flung rural areas - is not working. In fact, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), half of those without electricity today will never be wired to the grid. It’s clear that if energy access is going to be honestly and effectively addressed in Rio, another approach is desperately needed.

A big part of the problem is cost. The main ingredients of conventional grid power (coal and copper) - are soaring. Meanwhile, the cost of solar panels and LEDs, the ingredients of distributed renewable power, are racing down even faster. If we want to deliver on energy access goals in Rio, and we want the poor to benefit from electricity we cannot wait for the grid, and we cannot rely on fossil fuels.

That's why over-investment in large scale centralized energy production, particularly coal plants, means relying exclusively on the wrong tool for much of the job, and as a result represent an enormous waste of scarce development resources.  That leaves us with 1 billion reasons to invest in the alternative - distributed clean energy access.

At the outset of this new year, under the banner of the United Nation’s sustainable energy for all campaign, the voices clamoring for a revolutionary shift from centralized fossil power, to decentralized clean energy are growing louder. What’s more, they are increasingly coming from traditionally conservative corners that are recognizing that the only way to deliver energy access is to rely on decentralized clean energy. The best news of all is that 2012 is the year that this innovative new approach that will deliver hundreds of millions from poverty, firmly entrench clean energy, and help democratize the world begins.

The foundations for this departure from orthodoxy have been laid by the International Energy Agency (IEA), which has essentially admitted in a series of energy access papers that the majority of those without electricity today will never be wired to the grid (PDF). The Government of India goes even further estimating that two-thirds of its unelectrified households need distributed power after it spent a decade increasing centralized energy supplies (by 60%) only to see a correspondingly paltry increase in energy access (10%). To these realizations can be added a growing number of countries seeking to throw off the shackles of dirty kerosene expenses (see Kenya’s call to be ‘Kerosene free’)and it’s clear the situation is ripe for change.

At the same time decades of experience from a broad set of actors are bringing successful models to fruition placing the lofty goal of universal energy access firmly in the realm of the possible. This grassroots effort is colliding with a fundamentally shifting economics for clean energy vis-a-vis fossil fuels that is ensuring decentralized clean energy is the best option for off grid areas.

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