Charles Ebinger is the Director of the Energy Security Initiative and a Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution, a think tank based in Washington D.C. He specializes in international and domestic[…]
Pushing developing countries to slow development because of the energy crisis we’ve created is not just unfair—it’s dangerous.
Question: Will human beings be able to engineer a solution to rnthe energy crisis?
rn
rnCharles Ebinger: Well I don't think we'll engineer our way out rnof the energy crisis, but I think if we adopt a series of prudent rnpolicies, we may get there. And by that, I think we need a lot greater rnattention paid to energy efficiency, which is still... the single best rnway to deal with the energy situation is not to use it if there's a way rnto do so. I'm not talking about you know sitting in the dark; I'm rntalking about simply better technology that gives you the same bang for rnthe buck.
rn
rnBut if we focus on energy technology, if we move towards cleaner rnvehicles in our transportation sector and our electric utility sector, Irn think you know we can get there, but it's a... it's a hard slog, rnbecause while we talk about you know needing to reduce our energy rnconsumption because of concerns about climate change, I always like to rnremind people that there are roughly 1.6 billion people in the world whorn have no access to electricity and even more who have no access to rncommercial energy. And we can't forget those people as we deal with our rnown part of the problem.
rn
rnQuestion: Is it fair for the First World to tell poorer countries torn slow development?
rn
rnCharles Ebinger: Well it's certainly not only not fair from a rnhuman... humane point of view, but I think it's more ominous than that. rn I think in the kind of world we live in and modern communications and rnpeople who have very little certainly aren't unaware of how those of us rnthat have very much live. And I think at some point we're going to startrn seeing increased political violence and potential increased risk of rnterrorism rather than just have people wallow in their misery and kind rnof die unnoticed by the rest of us.
rn
rnQuestion: What are practical ways to help developing countries meet rntheir growing energy needs?
rn
rnCharles Ebinger: Well some of the developing countries, of coursern being very poor countries—I'm thinking particularly of maybe some of rnthe central African countries—their problem is they don't have the rnresources to do what they need to do to adapt to climate change or to rntake actions to mitigate the effects of climate change. Many of these rncountries are suffering from deforestation or growing incursions by the rndesert, what we call desertification, and increasingly many parts of rntheir countries are uninhabitable. We're beginning to see climate rnrefugees move across international frontiers in response to these rnchanges. So I think we need to go in with renewable energy technologiesrn that make sense given the local environment and try to provide a betterrn modicum of life but also to dissuade them from continuing to denude thern remaining forests that they have.
rn
rnQuestion: Which renewable energy technologies should we use?
rn
rnCharles Ebinger: Well, in many parts of the emerging market rncountries, I think wind and solar offer probably the two greatest rnpotentials. Certainly all of North Africa has great solar resources andrn a lot of the desert regions have pretty consistent winds. So you want rnto start with that, and then you need to use those technologies, you rnknow, to help with wells, develop water supplies, and wind- and rnsolar-generated electricity can alleviate those kinds of problems as rnwell.
Recorded on April 28th, 2010
Interviewed by Austin Allen
rn
rnCharles Ebinger: Well I don't think we'll engineer our way out rnof the energy crisis, but I think if we adopt a series of prudent rnpolicies, we may get there. And by that, I think we need a lot greater rnattention paid to energy efficiency, which is still... the single best rnway to deal with the energy situation is not to use it if there's a way rnto do so. I'm not talking about you know sitting in the dark; I'm rntalking about simply better technology that gives you the same bang for rnthe buck.
rn
rnBut if we focus on energy technology, if we move towards cleaner rnvehicles in our transportation sector and our electric utility sector, Irn think you know we can get there, but it's a... it's a hard slog, rnbecause while we talk about you know needing to reduce our energy rnconsumption because of concerns about climate change, I always like to rnremind people that there are roughly 1.6 billion people in the world whorn have no access to electricity and even more who have no access to rncommercial energy. And we can't forget those people as we deal with our rnown part of the problem.
rn
rnQuestion: Is it fair for the First World to tell poorer countries torn slow development?
rn
rnCharles Ebinger: Well it's certainly not only not fair from a rnhuman... humane point of view, but I think it's more ominous than that. rn I think in the kind of world we live in and modern communications and rnpeople who have very little certainly aren't unaware of how those of us rnthat have very much live. And I think at some point we're going to startrn seeing increased political violence and potential increased risk of rnterrorism rather than just have people wallow in their misery and kind rnof die unnoticed by the rest of us.
rn
rnQuestion: What are practical ways to help developing countries meet rntheir growing energy needs?
rn
rnCharles Ebinger: Well some of the developing countries, of coursern being very poor countries—I'm thinking particularly of maybe some of rnthe central African countries—their problem is they don't have the rnresources to do what they need to do to adapt to climate change or to rntake actions to mitigate the effects of climate change. Many of these rncountries are suffering from deforestation or growing incursions by the rndesert, what we call desertification, and increasingly many parts of rntheir countries are uninhabitable. We're beginning to see climate rnrefugees move across international frontiers in response to these rnchanges. So I think we need to go in with renewable energy technologiesrn that make sense given the local environment and try to provide a betterrn modicum of life but also to dissuade them from continuing to denude thern remaining forests that they have.
rn
rnQuestion: Which renewable energy technologies should we use?
rn
rnCharles Ebinger: Well, in many parts of the emerging market rncountries, I think wind and solar offer probably the two greatest rnpotentials. Certainly all of North Africa has great solar resources andrn a lot of the desert regions have pretty consistent winds. So you want rnto start with that, and then you need to use those technologies, you rnknow, to help with wells, develop water supplies, and wind- and rnsolar-generated electricity can alleviate those kinds of problems as rnwell.
Recorded on April 28th, 2010
Interviewed by Austin Allen
▸
19 min
—
with
