For city economies to prosper, poor need clean power

Giving the poorest people in the world’s fast-growing cities access to affordable, clean energy supplies, while wiping out the use of hazardous solid fuels is essential for urban economies to grow on a warming planet, researchers said.

Some half a billion people in urban areas still cook with traditional fuels like wood, said a report from the Washington-based World Resources Institute (WRI).

It urged cities to boost access to solar power and other clean energy sources, and make buildings and domestic appliances more efficient.

“You cannot be a modern, prosperous city in the 21st century unless the energy access challenge is addressed,” Michael Westphal from the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-energy-renewables-cities/for-city-economies-to-prosper-poor-need-clean-power-researchers-idUSKCN1BI0B8

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