We saw this presentation by Energy Secretary Steven Chu in the Bella Center, in Copenhagen last month. The video shows the night sky across the earth, and the disparity between where the most energy is used, versus population centers.
Secretary Chu was announcing a $100 million Climate REDI (Renewables and Efficient Deployment Initative), an international climate adaptation aid package, including a technology transfer grant for poor countries whose populations still use lamp oil to light their homes. As Americans, we often take basic electricity for granted. Fuel-based lighting is inefficient, provides limited and poor quality light, and exposes users to significant health and fire hazards. Burning the hurricane lamps and wick lamps indoors causes large numbers of premature death from indoor air pollution.
To promote solar and LED programs, the Climate REDI fund is supporting the Lighting Africa initiative, TERI’s Lighting a Billion Lives program, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lumina Project.
The funding will help develop best practices and efficiency standards for solar-powered LED lamps, which should drive down the cost to around ten dollars each. Cutting the price is seen as a critical step toward broad implementation.
For all the complex, expensive climate solutions like carbon sequestration, there are some simple, affordable solutions that reduce pollution while providing millions of poor families across the world with the basics like lighting and water.
