Trade and Development Board Trade and Development Commission Expert Meeting on Green and Renewable Technologies as Energy Solutions for Rural Development

Item 3 of the provisional agenda Green and renewable technologies as energy solutions for rural development Issues paper prepared by the UNCTAD secretariat Executive summary Access to electricity and modern energy sources is a basic requirement for achieving and sustaining higher living standards. Yet 1.6 billion people lack such access, and more than half of all people living in developing countries rely on traditional biomass to meet their basic energy needs. Despite the challenges of providing modern energy to poor remote areas, new technological developments, innovative project design, climate change mitigation requirements and new opportunities for policy synergies offer strategic options to meet the objective of providing universal access to energy services for carbon-efficient rural poverty reduction. Renewable energy technologies (RETs) such as solar, wind, biofuels and mini-hydro can conveniently be utilized to provide electricity in small stand-alone systems, not connected to national electric grids. They can constitute economical and reliable options to deliver energy to remote rural areas. The use of RETs in rural poverty eradication strategies provides an exemplary win– win result for economic growth, job and income generation, and environmental sustainability. Scaled-up deployment of RETs in rural areas can enhance export competitiveness and open new opportunities for South–South cooperation, and increased trade and investment. This issues paper describes some of these opportunities and discusses policies and measures to successfully harness RETs for sustainable rural development