Some Aspects of Energy Policy in the Third World
| Date | 01 October 1979 |
| Published date | 01 October 1979 |
| DOI | 10.1177/004711787900600404 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
672
SOME
ASPECTS
OF
ENERGY
POLICY
IN
THE
THIRD
WORLD
N.
J.
D.
LUCAS
THIS
paper
is
based
on
the
conference
on
energy
strategies
in
the
third
world
which
was
recently
organised
by
the
Royal
Institution’;
i
it
is
not
intended
as
a
balanced
report,
but
as
a
personal
reflection
on
some
aspects.
Much
time
was
devoted
to
the
cultivation
of
old
fallacies,
comfortable,
for
different
reasons,
for
representatives
from
the
developed
and
developing
worlds.
Here
and
there
were
disturbing
glimpses
of
reality
which
this
paper
tries
to
collate.
One
of
the
hardiest
of
conventional
myths
is
that
developing
countries
should
not
adopt
the
same
disreputable
oil
burning
habits
of
the
rest
of
the
world,
but
would
be
better
off
with
wind,
solar
and
biogas,
which
in
most
relevant
applications
are
economi-
cally
unproven, but
which
are
seen
by
the
representatives
of
the
industrialised
countries
as
more
appropriate
to
the
picturesque
developing
world.
A
rival
in
durability
is
the
supportative
assump-
tion
that
all
that
stands
between
the
developing
world
and
this
desirable
state
of
affairs
is
the
monopoly
of
technical
knowledge
in
the
industrialised
world
exemplified
by
the
oil
companies,
which
enforces
an
inefficient
and
inappropriate
form
of
development.
The
realities
are
that
conventional
energy
technology
is
by
far
the
most
efficient
stimulus
to
development
and
that
the
industrialised
world
does
not
have
a
monopoly
of
technology,
it
simply
has
the
politi-
cal
and
commercial
institutions
effectively
to
apply
it.
Before
exploring
further
these
propositions
it
is
as
well
to
sketch
the
relationship
between
energy
and
development.
Evidently,
energy
problems
cannot
be
examined
in
depth
except
as
an
element
in
a
very
complex
interrelationship
between
economic
growth,
environmental
integrity
and
income
and
wealth
distiibu-
tion.
It
is
also
clear
that
there
are
great
differences
in
requirements
and
possibilities
among
the
various
nations
in
the
third
world.
Unfortunately,
in
so
short
a
space
it
is
not
possible
to
qualify
the
argument
in
the
manner
which
these
important
factors
require.
1
Third
World
Energy
Strategies
and
the
Role
of
the
Industrialised
Coun-
tries.
Royal
Institution
of
Great
Britain.
June
1979.
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