Lack of access to modern forms of energy (12/29/2009)
(...) Oil represents 19 per cent of the energy mix today; demand has long been met by domestic oil, but, with the recent boost in demand, the country is now a net importer. The third main energy source in China is traditional biomass. Although its use has decreased thanks to electrification, it still represented 13 per cent in 2005. (...)

The environmental situation of the Asian countries (12/29/2009)
(...) At that time, Chinese emissions are forecasted to be 66 per cent higher than those of the US, ranked second. Therefore, challenges in terms of CO2 mitigation are huge and should, at some point, take place in Asia. However, currently, climate change is not the form of pollution that worries most Asian inhabitants. (...)

Concept of security of energy supplies (12/29/2009)
(...) Therefore, as we shall see, the strategies of Chinese, Indian and even Japanese governments are focusing on oil resources. The most common way to measure energy conservation is to use energy intensity which is the amount of energy used to produce one dollar of GDP. Developing Asian countries are not performing very well and there is, in this respect, a good deal of room for improvement. (...)

Reducing energy poverty (12/29/2009)
(...) Concerning traditions, Indian households, even those that are rich, still use their biomass stoves to prepare their traditional bread. Therefore, strategies other than the electrification of the country must be pursued, such as upgrading kitchen ventilation and the efficiency of biomass cooking stoves in poor households. Indeed, whereas biomass cooking stoves using dung offer an 8 per cent energy efficiency and 9 per cent using wood fuel, coal and charcoal cooking stoves have 25 per cent energy efficiency and those using natural gas, kerosene or LPG reach 50-60 per cent. (...)

Economic growth and new energy strategies (12/29/2009)
(...) Moreover, the adoption of a list of ‘strategic fields' in 2007 now grants state control over important oil and gas fields, such as the Chtokman in the Barents Sea. Gazprom and Rosneft, two Kremlin-controlled companies, are often privileged in winning the licence permits. In the West, the recent developments such as in Sakhalin are generally interpreted as new cases of ‘resource nationalism'. (...)

High rate of carbon dioxide emissions (12/29/2009)
(...) In the oil industry, the flaring of the associated gas amounts to at least 15 bcm per year. Yet, some Russian economists and climate experts have harshly criticised this decision on the grounds that it is politically motivated and would threaten economic growth. Yuri Izrael, the vice-chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), wrote: ‘The Kyoto Protocol is economically hazardous to Russia . (...)

New standard for measuring purchasing power parity (12/29/2009)
(...) 5 ton of oil equivalent (toe) in sub-Saharan Africa, 1 toe in China, 4 in Europe and 8 in the United States. Per capita consumption of commercial energy in the United States is 80 times higher than in Africa, 40 times higher than in South Asia, 15 times higher than in East Asia, and 8 times higher than in Latin America. Parts of world are ‘overenergised'; others are ‘under-energised'. (...)

Developing countries may be the first victims of climate change (12/29/2009)
(...) Vulnerability of the poor countries means that it will be more difficult and more costly for them to mitigate and to adapt to the threats of climate change. It could aggravate tensions, migrations and wars. Climate change is bringing a new dimension to the geopolitics of the planet. (...)

State support and government commitment (12/29/2009)
(...) Sub-Saharan countries provide a large diversity of ethnic fractionalisation with very often one majority group and the rest of the population divided among quite small groups. The effects of ethnic fractionalisation have been extensively studied. Highly fractionalised societies face a greater level of political competition between rent-seeking groups, resulting in higher transaction costs to reach an agreement on public goods like health, education and infrastructure. (...)