ABSTRACT
Biomass currently supplies about one-third of the developing countries’ energyvarying from about 90 per cent in countries like Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania, to 45 per cent in India, 30 per cent in China and Brazil, and 10-15 per cent in Mexico and South Africa. These percentages are changing only slightly even as countries use more commercial/fossil fuels. The crucial questions are whether the two billion or more people who are now dependent on biomass for energy will actually decrease in numbers in the next century, and what are the continuing consequences to development and environment (local and global) from this dependence ‘forever’ on biomass. The World Bank in 1996 recognised that ‘energy policies will need to be as concerned about the supply and use of biofuels as they are about modern fuels’.
