Energy quantities and prices

Wood is the "oil of the poor". Chad for instance, while exporting oil since 2003, covered 97.6 % of its total energy use in 1997 with biomass in the form of "tradtional biomass consumption", according to the "Human Development Report 2001 (pa. 235) of UNDP.

 

Prices for oil and gas are determined on the world market by the purchasing power of rich countries. Households in poor countries cannot compete with them.  Wood fuels are still the cheapest source of energy, since they are normally not traded across frontiers.  In some areas, felling exceeds new growth. Population increase, the passage from wood to charcoal and other factors lead to overexploitation of wood resources close to population centres.

 

Wood is a renewable resource on the condition, that regrowth is at least as big as consumption. In many areas this is however no more the case..

 Oil, Wood Fuel an the Sun.pdf

 Cooking with renewable energies.pdf

 

Next page: Photos: overexploitation of wood resources & environmental impact

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