Africa must set alternative energy agenda - U.N. - Reuters

[Eugene]

Africa must set alternative energy agenda - U.N.
22 Mar 2007 10:13:45 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Daniel Wallis

NAIROBI, March 22 (Reuters) - Africa must be bold and follow the
examples of Brazil and Germany to plan an energy future around
renewable and alternative sources, the head of the U.N. environment
agency said on Thursday.

Many of the plans being considered by African governments, including
huge hydropower dams and fossil fuel plants, were simply "more of the
same", U.N. Environment Programme executive director Achim Steiner
told a development conference in Kenya.

Many would be able to supply the huge appetite of industry and city
dwellers on the world's poorest continent, he said, but they would
"lock in" the rural majority to decades without power.

-snip-

Africa was rich in renewable energy resources like wind, solar and
geothermal power, he said, which could be harnessed relatively
cheaply to power small communities.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/WAL232511.htm