Energy inequities within developing countries

A major theme of development during the half century since the end of World War II has been that of closing the affluence gap between the richer and poorer countries of the world. It is thus not surprising that a principal focus of the worldwide discussions on global environmental change during the past decade has been the issue of equity between countries. The evolving concept of sustainable development has drawn attention to the need of maintaining some equity between generations. In contrast, there has been relatively little attention paid to issues of equity within countries. In many parts of the world, the disparities within countries are as large as those between the developing and the industrialized countries, and these inequities need to be addressed much more explicitly than has been the case so far. In this paper, differences in energy use in South Asia between the low income and middle class households for cooking, transportation, and electricity, are used as illustrations of the disparities within countries. These have implications in terms of the impact of each group on the global environment, as well as on the local environment.