The challenge for the development community is to exploit the links between energy and poverty to combat global poverty. The human scale of this challenge is huge. Today, 1.6 billion people lack access to electricity and 2.4 billion rely on traditional biomass for cooking and heating. Indoor air...

The Sustainable and Participatory Energy Management project - PROGEDE was implemented by the government between 1997 and 2004. From project preparation to supervision the World Bank worked in close collaboration with Dutch Co-operation (DGIS). At the time of project preparation, forest-based...

"In this paper the authors investigate individuals' exposure to indoor air pollution. Using new survey data from Bangladesh, they analyze exposure at two levels--differences within households attributable to family roles, and differences across households attributable to income and education....

"Indoor air pollution (IAP) from cooking and heating is estimated to kill a million children annually in developing countries. To promote a better understanding of IAP, the authors investigate the determinants of IAP in Bangladesh using the latest air monitoring technology and a national...

This handbook provides an overview of the main topics that need consideration when managing the supply of biomass to large biomass power plants. It will help investors in China to develop, with assistance of local biomass supply experts, their own solutions. The focus is on biomass residues, in...

Pakistan is facing a large deficit in electricity supply. A report published by the Government of Pakistan (GoP) in 2013 showed that the electricity supply-demand gap has continuously grown over the past five years and has reached 4,500 to 5,500 Megawatt (MW) in 2013. Such an enormous gap has...

Renewable energy and energy efficiency projects continue to perform strongly in the World Bank Group (WBG) energy portfolio and are increasingly being mainstreamed in the WBG's energy lending. In fiscal 2007 a total of US$1,433 million supported 63 renewable energy and energy efficiency projects...

This policy note is a summary of the findings of a joint study of the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, and the World Bank. The policy note is organized as follows: the next section, 'in the shadow of king coal,' provides a brief history of the...

This report is a window into a larger initiative, the jobs and prosperity: building Zambia's Competitiveness (JPC) program. The JPC program is a 'joint venture' between the governments of the Republic of Zambia, the Zambian private sector, the United Kingdom's Department for International...