Third World Nations , Put Trump to Shame

dirge Sun Nov 27, 2016 8:28 pm

As the world's leading superpowers struggle to make the transition from fossil-based energy systems to more sustainable options, 47 of the world’s poorest nations have pledged to skip fossil fuels altogether and jump straight to using 100 percent renewable energy instead.

The ambitious goal was laid out by members of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) during the final day of the UN Climate Change Conference in Morocco last week, which discussed ways for countries to hit the targets set by the Paris Agreement late last year.

The idea, in a nutshell, is to have some of the world’s poorest countries skip from pre-industrialisation practices to renewables, allowing them to basically avoid the 'messy part' in the middle where a need for more energy to support economic growth spurs fossil fuel use to dangerously high levels.

In economics, this sort of skipping is known as 'leapfrogging' and it occurs when a society skips a step of development that other countries have taken.

One of the best examples of this process is mobile phones in rural Africa.

In many African nations, people in remote areas ended up skipping the landline step, with only one land line per 33 people, and moved straight to mobile technology. Now one in 10 people have a cell phone - a transition that some have called a revolution.
Members of the CVF hope to perform the same kind of 'leapfrogging' with regards to energy.

The 47 members of the CVF – which includes nations like Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Haiti – say they'll "strive to meet 100 percent domestic renewable energy production as rapidly as possible, while working to end energy poverty and protect water and food security, taking into consideration national circumstances".

http://www.sciencealert.com/the-world-s-poorest-countries-aim-to-jump-straight-to-100-percent-green-energy