31/05/06

Brazil, China and India urged to cut energy waste

China is the world's largest consumer and producer of coal

Send to a friend

The details you provide on this page will not be used to send unsolicited email, and will not be sold to a 3rd party. See privacy policy.

[BEIJING] Brazil, China and India need to find ways of encouraging companies to reduce energy waste, according to a joint UN and World Bank project.


The project’s final report, released on Monday (29 May), says the world has a major stake in the success of efforts to reduce energy consumption and pollution in these countries.


Launched in 2001, the Three Country Energy Efficiency project has supported energy saving projects in Brazil, China and India by helping financial institutions develop new lending programs for such projects.


Despite the potential for these countries to save energy, several obstacles remain.


These include a lack of awareness and experience of using energy efficient technologies and a lack of combined technical and financial skill on the part of the lenders, which discourages commercial banks to offer enough funding for energy efficiency projects.


But the report insists that limiting the waste of energy and its associated emissions can save money.


Its authors recommend that Brazil, China and India foster the growth of companies that deliver energy, promote energy efficiency investment by local utilities, and develop special local lending arrangements to fund energy conservation projects.


The Chinese government has already pushed 1,000 major industrial enterprises to implement energy-saving projects.


But Chen Ying, deputy director of the Research Centre for Sustainable Development under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told SciDev.Net that if the policies are to produce sustainable results, it will be through the diverse and efficient services that result when more private energy companies and consulting firms are involved.


Although Brazil, China and India emit just ten per cent of the greenhouse gases per person of what is emitted in North America, their national emissions are rising far faster. China’s emissions, for example, are expected to double by 2020 when they will surpass the United States as the leading source of greenhouse gases.

The Three Country Energy Efficiency project was a collaboration between the World Bank, the UN Environment Programme and partners in China, Brazil and India.