Energy Access for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: The ‘Micro Renewable’ Solution

Abstract

Energy and its access have been the principal driving forces behind development. While energy access has accelerated development, the traditional paths of achieving it have created the crisis of climate change. This makes energy and its access the principal factors defining our response to climate change. Most parts of the world are seeing a rapid increase in population. Providing energy to this population will involve extensive use of fossil fuels leading to large quantity of green house gas (GHG) emissions, which will augment the crisis of climate change. Thus, the path that we chose for development will be highly critical for climate change mitigation. The countries and regions with higher poverty, lower levels of human development, and lesser energy access will have fewer options and lower adaptive capacity.1 It has also been documented that countries with high level of per capita electricity consumption perform better both economically and socially. It can be inferred that access to energy plays a defining role in adaptation to climate change. Ironically, the historic path of attaining energy access through fossil fuel use augments the problem. However, renewable energy emerges as a solution that can help in providing wider energy access at the same time avoiding GHG emissions. The solution for loss of precious energy in long distance transmission and distribution can be found in micro renewable energy. Micro renewable energy can not only bring a balance between climate change mitigation and adaptation but also save energy otherwise lost in transmission and distribution.