Abstract
The lack of access to affordable and reliable energy services is a key obstacle to human, social and economic development. Yet billions of people worldwide lack access to electricity and still rely on traditional biomass as their primary source of energy. This chapter presents a vision for scaling up efforts to provide the poor with modern, safe and efficient energy services in the context of energy–development linkages, climate change and the geopolitics of energy security. Energy for development strategies should aim at transformative changes that bring about sustainable development and address climate change in a holistic manner because a transition to low-carbon economies is a pressing imperative. Energy security and reliable access to relatively inexpensive energy supplies is a prerequisite for economic development and competitiveness. New institutional arrangements are needed to address these challenges.
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Acknowledgments
My gratitude goes to the organisers of the IAEA Scientific Forum entitled ‘Energy for Development’ at the IAEA General Conference 2009 for bringing such a crucial topic to the attention of Member States and other stakeholders. I am thankful to Patrick Nussbaumer and Morgan Bazilian, my special advisor on energy issues, from UNIDO for assisting me in consolidating my presentation into this chapter.
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Yumkella, K.K. (2012). Multilateralism and Energy for Development. In: Toth, F. (eds) Energy for Development. Environment & Policy, vol 54. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4162-1_4
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