ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes each in detail before elaborating on the positive social, economic, and environmental benefits they can provide households, communities, and countries. The provision of modern renewable energy services can expand income-generating activities that can greatly reduce poverty, and also help diversify the economies of developing countries against fossil fuel shocks and price spikes. Poverty and energy deprivation go hand-in-hand, with energy expenses accounting for a significant proportion of household incomes in many developing countries. Countries without access to modern energy also tend to have more dilapidated health systems. In some developing countries, girls spend more than seven times as many hours collecting wood and water than adult males, and 3.5 times as many hours compared to boys the same age. The link between fuelwood collection and deforestation does not hold for all countries, however.
