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SUSTAINABILITY AND ENERGY

Without a back-up plan

Nature Sustainability volume 1, pages 538–539 (2018)Cite this article

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A reliable power supply in developing countries can help socio-economic development efforts. Now research shows that it would also avoid significant environmental impacts.

It is quite clear that access to electricity is closely linked with both economic and human development1,2,3,4,5, although the direction of causality and proposed mechanisms differ. On the basis of those linkages, analysts and development organizations have consistently advocated for increased investment in the modern energy systems of developing countries, mindful of the potential for synergies and trade-offs with the Sustainable Development Goals6,7,8,9. For example, in the context of human health, a local power plant might have the capacity to make improvements in sanitation that reduce infant or child mortality even as the plant degrades air quality and increases air-pollution deaths. Yet while many countries have invested heavily in making electricity access more widespread, consumers in many developing regions continue to struggle with poor electricity reliability10,11,12. This reality persists in part because electricity outages are difficult to accurately measure. Data are thus either inconsistent or simply unavailable, stifling appropriate investments to improve the dependability of electricity supplies13. For consumers coping with unreliable power, the stakes go well beyond unrealized economic gains caused by widespread outages, to environmental and human health outcomes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth System Science, University of California Irvine, California, 92697, USA

    Steven J. Davis

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California Irvine, California, 92697, USA

    Steven J. Davis

  3. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts, 01003, USA

    Jay Taneja

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  1. Steven J. Davis
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  2. Jay Taneja
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Correspondence to Steven J. Davis or Jay Taneja.

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Davis, S.J., Taneja, J. Without a back-up plan. Nat Sustain 1, 538–539 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0158-1

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