“As a global community, we have common ground: climate change,” Janet Hall, a senior policy adviser at the United Nations Foundation, said. “Climate change poses many challenges to our planet and to our lives. One of the greatest challenges is how we advance the changes necessary to address climate change and to build a better future for developing countries.”
One of the most important tools in helping developing countries pull out of economic turmoil is providing them with renewable energy sources, and according to Hall, “for poor nations, their ability to emerge out of poverty is linked to modern energy services.”
Hall used statistics to push her point home, stating that 1.6 billion people are still without access to electricity and four out of five people live without electricity in rural areas of developing countries, mainly in south Asia and in Africa. Highlighting Africa, Hall explained that nearly 92 percent of the rural population lives without electricity in sub-Saharan Africa.
“A total of 2.4 billion people rely on traditional biomass, which is all organic substance produced by plants or animals, for cooking and heating," Hall said. "The traditional biomass that they must rely on in these countries harms their health.” Quoting from the World Health Organization, Hall noted, “In relative terms, death related to biomass pollution kills more people than malaria and tuberculosis each year, worldwide.”
Describing the negative impact that biomass use in developing countries has on their surrounding environment, Hall said, “Wood gathering leads to deforestation, which leads to erosion setting off a series of environmental calamities. All these factors leave poorer countries with little, if any, chance to develop.”
Hall then addressed how developed nations can go about helping these poorer nations not only gain energy access, but also equip them with renewable energy resources to help them both economically and environmentally.
“Now is the time to work on new paths of cooperation, both North-South, and South-South cooperation are going to be crucial in dealing effectively with these global issues.”
For an example on North-South cooperation, Hall pointed to the “Memorandum of Understanding on Bio-Fuels” signed by the United States and Brazil. This memorandum is allowing both countries to work together to “bring the benefits of bio-fuels to less-developed nations.”
South-South cooperation projects also are underway to “develop mutually beneficial technology, services and trading relationships promoting self-sufficiency among southern nations and strengthening economic ties among states whose market power is more equally matched than in North-South trading relationships.”
Hall said that India investing in bio-fuel technology in West Africa, and Egypt helping Tanzania with irrigation projects are examples of how South-South relationships will help developing nations escape from poverty.
After showing how global initiatives like the ones going on in the North-South and South-South nations can help get renewable energy resources to developing countries, which will stimulate their economic growth, Hall next focused on what individuals in places like Delaware can do to help.
“Delaware can play a role in helping the world's poor develop a sustainable way," Hall said. "Innovation in bio-energy and renewable energy development is well under way in Delaware. A center for nano-technology is looking at maximizing the electricity that can be generated by solar panels. Farms are raising crops that can be used in producing bio-energy resources. This is the group of actions that are going to make a difference in the future.”
Before concluding her speech, Hall told the audience, “Here is a chance for our country and this state to lead. Delaware could be the link to transforming poverty in developing countries.”
Article by Adam Thomas
