Energy Justice Conference: practical solutions take priority
Boulder, Colorado, 06.11.2010 - REEEP International Secretariat
The second annual Energy Justice Conference in Boulder, Colorado attracted speakers from all over the world to share experiences and look at practical solutions to the issue of energy poverty, where an estimated 2 billion people in the world have no access at all any form modern energy.
This year’s conference attracted 150 participants concentrated on giving people the tools implement ideas on the ground. “We need things that people who have been living without energy can get actually used to,” says Colorado University Professor Lakshman Guruswamy. In practical terms, this means delivering things like solar cookers, water filters, and improved low-polluting cookstoves; things that immediately improve lives on the ground without necessarily depending on a new grid connection, which is often a distant prospect.
The breakout sessions in the conference each concentrated on a specific action area where solutions are already available:
- Cooking
- Illumination
- Communications
- Drinking water
- Agriculture
The practical devices such as solar cookers and water filters also featured in a Sustainable Energy Village alongside the conference, where local primary schoolchildren had the chance to demonstrate them to visitors and to sample some solar-cooked rice themselves. A current REEEP project is also working with the Energy Justice initiative to help harness CDM and other climate financing to support the roll-out of efficient cookstoves and other clean energy improvements in rural India.