Energy and the forgotten millions

Most of us take electricity and clean cooking fuels for granted, but across the world, almost three billion people continue to live without reliable, modern energy services. 

In large parts of the developing world, families use unclean, solid fuels such as wood, charcoal, and agriculture and animal waste to meet their daily cooking and heating requirements. 

The indoor air pollution this creates can significantly affect human health, and the use of these fuels also has high environmental and social costs. 

For example, the use and sale of firewood is a leading cause of deforestation and irreversible environmental degradation in parts of Africa, and the burden of collecting and transporting cooking fuel is often left to women and girls, furthering gender inequality.

Modern, clean and efficient energy services are crucial for human wellbeing. They facilitate social and economic development, bring shared prosperity, and foster equity and gender empowerment. 

UQ’s Energy and Poverty Research Group (EPRG) is working on extending these services to impoverished regions, collaborating with partners across the globe to develop sustainable, reliable and affordable energy solutions tailored to different contexts and needs. 

Involving people across UQ, the group brings together PhD students, research fellows and academic research leaders with diverse skills working in a wide range of disciplines, including social science, psychology, business, communication and social change, and chemical and mechanical engineering. 

With 12 projects already underway in India, and with plans to expand further, the group’s work has the potential to drive changes that will improve and even save the lives of millions of people around the world, while also delivering many environmental benefits.

Malakar's research is just one of the many areas the EPRG is working on to create change.

As well as looking at the barriers that prevent the uptake of clean energy in different communities, the group’s projects are also exploring other issues important to understanding and overcoming energy poverty, such as the role of the private sector in rural electrification, the role energy access plays in building resilience and disaster management, and the potential use of local coal and municipal solid waste as an alternative liquid fuel for cooking.

Through its work, the group has built a solid network of collaborators comprising academic, policy (think tanks) and private sector organisations across India, Nepal, Cambodia, Myanmar, South Africa and PNG, and is working with these partners to co-design and co-develop innovative, low-cost and scalable solutions that meet those regions’ specific needs. 

Professor Paul Lant, one of the EPRG’s transformation experts, says the group’s ultimate aim is to drive behavioural changes that will help alleviate energy poverty across the world.

“To date, the EPRG has established strong foundational research, and indeed some early insights have been quite profound.

 “From this early work, and by engaging with policymakers and decision-makers across India, we hope our research in time will lead to large-scale, long-term changes in the behaviour of individuals, communities, and industry.”

While its current focus is on India, Professor Lant says the group hopes to expand its work to the Pacific and South-East Asia.

“We work across all scales, from small villages with less than one hundred people, to a project mapping more than 160 countries,” he says. 

“Moving forward, we hope to partner with key players in governments and the private sector to maximise our impact and expand our work to the rest of India and the world.” 

A key feature of the group’s work is collaboration with local partners, including the Foundation for Ecological Security, IIT-Bombay, Tata Institute for Social Sciences, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, TERI, Practical Action, Xavier Institute of Management, and Yuva Vikas. 

In Australia, the EPRG works closely with Monash University, CSIRO, Solar Buddy and the Kokoda Track Foundation.

Professor Lant says there is a clear opportunity for government and private sector partners to be part of this global collaboration and contribute to the group’s growing expertise. 

“We invite expressions of interest to partner with us, either through project-specific funding, in-kind support, or as part of our wider consortium."