VII Social Inclusion

While clean energy can serve as a robust enabler of economic growth, ensuring socially inclusive development remains a signature political economy challenge for clean energy transitions. With that in mind, this part features chapters that explore the linkages between social development programmes and clean energy aspirations, climate and development implications of energy poverty reduction programmes, and the impacts of energy development actors and interests on local communities and their agendas. Achieving inclusive economic growth in concert with clean energy and climate goals is a complex task; the subsequent case studies intend to illustrate some of the relevant, governing political economy elements to be considered by policy makers in this realm.

Ezeanya and Kennedy explore the various strategies employed by the Government of Rwanda in achieving increased biogas use among the rural poor, particularly through an agricultural direct assistance and poverty reduction programme known as Girinika. This case study, more generally, attempts to shed light on the conditions necessary for successful implementation of clean energy pro-poor reforms in rural communities. McCormick explores hydroelectricity and biomass development in the Brazilian Amazon, and the linkages between the needs and agendas of local communities, the economic interests, and politics at the national level, and international social actors and financial interests. Kruger, Tait, and de Groot characterize the political economy of residential energy choices and energy poverty reduction programmes in developing countries through comparative analysis of South Africa and Indonesia.