During a recent interview with Gulf News, the head of the Pakistani non-governmental organisation, Aga Khan Planning and Building Service (which was shortlisted for this year's Zayed Future Energy Prize for its efforts to create sustainable and energy-efficient communities), said up to 2.7 billion people around the world could be reliant on biomass for their heating and cooking needs in 2030. This represents a rise of 0.3 billion from the current figure, and far exceeds the number of people benefitting from solar and wind power.
“Access to energy is still a major challenge for a large number of communities particularly in the developing world”, Hadi Husani said. “The lack of clean, reliable and sustainable sources of energy has wide-reaching consequences – mainly economic and developmental – for these communities”.
Husani highlights that energy access is a crucial building block for these vulnerable parts of society and addressing the issue can potentially alleviate a lot more than fuel shortages. His organisation is making considerable headway in introducing sustainable energy and environmental stewardship to the mountain communities of northern Pakistan.
"Through our interventions, we have been able to bring our sustainable solutions to hundreds of thousands of the most marginalised and the most impacted by climate change," he said. The organisation has helped over 220,000 people by distributing eight energy-saving devices that have already contributed to an annual carbon dioxide saving of 100,000 metric tonnes. These include improved cooking stoves with water warming facilities, roof hatch windows, and floor and wall insulation techniques.
Zayed Future Energy Prize
Zayed Future Energy Prize is described as "the world’s preeminent award for innovation, leadership, long-term vision, and impact in renewable energy and sustainability", and attracted 1,103 nominations and 425 submissions from participants in 71 countries from around the world, which represents an increase of 180% over the first year of the prize in 2009.
Yesterday, General Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, presented the 2012 Zayed Future Energy Prize to three winners and two runners up.
Carbon Disclosure Project based in the UK secured the top award of $1.5 million while India’s Orb Energy was the runner up with a cash prize of $1 million, followed by Environmental Defence Fund of the US getting $500,000.
Among the individuals, Dr Ashok Gadgil from the US won the Lifetime Achievement award, while French company, Schneider Electric, received a Recognition Award in the Large Corporations category.
[Inset: Efficient stoves manufactured by Aga Khan Planning and Building Service in Pakistan cook, heat water and warm homes in Northern Pakistan.]
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