The Environmental Effects of Rural Energy

Use

The Environmental Impact of Traditional Energy Use

Introduction
The rapid development of the rural economy and swift rise in the

quality of rural life are bringing continuous changes to rural

energy use. These changes are clarifying the relationship
between the development and use of rural energy, reductions in
GHG emissions, and global climate change.
Despite the developmental attributes of modern energy services,
environmental damage is almost an inevitable by-product of fuel
combustion. This occurs due to inefficient energy-use patterns
arising from unsustainable generation, or degradation of the
natural capital base as a result of emissions from the combustion
of energy forms.
In general, the consumption and production of energy from
various sources can harm, in various ways, all the three essential
elements of the planet: air, land, and waterble mining of natural
resources for energy

Introduction

Impacts of modern energy sources on air, land, and

Traditional Rural Energy Use and

Deforestation
Most developing countries depend heavily on biomass for their energy needs. For

example, in India, an estimated 220 million tons (mt) of firewood is used for
cooking in rural areas and about 160 million tons of non-fodder agricultural
residues are produced every year in the country. Firewood consumption trends
suggest that the consumption is, in fact, increasing steadily.
However, the use of wood for cooking purpose, especially in rural areas, is seen to

contribute very less to deforestation.

In contrast, urban and industrial consumers account for the bulk of the log

consumption, both as a direct energy source and as raw material. Linking

deforestationprimarilyto rural energy consumption, therefore, has little basis.

Introduction
It is also estimated that 60% of deforestation in developing countries can be attributed to the expansion of

agriculture.
The annual emission of GHGs from agriculture is expected to increase in coming decades due to escalating
demands for food and shifts in diet, but improved management practices and emerging technologies may
permit a reduction in emissions per unit of food (or of protein) produced. The main trends in the agriculture
sector, with the implications for GHG emissions or removals, are summarized as follows:
Growth in land productivity is expected to continue, although at a declining rate, due to saturation of
technological progress, and greater use of marginal land with lower productivity. Use of these marginal lands
increases the risk of soil erosion and degradation. The consequences of soil erosion on CO 2emissions are highly
uncertain (Lal, 2004aandVan Oost et al., 2004).
Conservation tillage and zero-tillage are increasingly being adopted, thus reducing the use of energy and
increasing carbon storage in soils. According toFAO (2001), the worldwide area under zero-tillage in 1999 was
estimated to be ca. 50Mha, which represented 3.5% of total arable land. However, such practices are
frequently combined with periodical tillage, thus making the assessment of the GHG balance highly uncertain.
Further improvements in productivity will require increasing use of irrigation and fertilizer, with the
consequence of increased energy demand (for moving water and manufacturing fertilizer;Schlesinger, 1999).
Also, irrigation and N fertilization may cause increased GHG emissions (Mosier, 2001).
Growing demand for meat may induce further changes in land use (e.g. from forestland to grassland), and
increased demand for animal feeds (e.g. cereals). Larger herds of beef cattle will cause increased emissions of
CH4and N2O, although use of intensive systems (with lower emissions per unit product) is expected to increase
faster than growth in grazing-based systems, which may attenuate the expected rise in GHG emissions.
Industrial production of beef, poultry and pork is increasingly more common, leading to increases in manure
with consequent increases in GHG emissions. This is particularly true in the developing regions of South and
East Asia, and Latin America, as well as in North America.
Changes in policies (e.g. subsidies), and regional patterns of production and demand are causing an increase
in international trade of agricultural products. This is expected to increase CO 2emissions, due to greater use of
energy for transportation.
There is an emerging trend for the greater use of agricultural products (e.g. bio-plastics, bio-fuels and biomass
for energy) as substitutes for fossil fuel-based products. This has the potential to reduce GHG emissions in the
future.

Traditional Rural Energy Use and

Deforestation
Most developing countries depend heavily on biomass for their energy needs. For

example, in India, an estimated 220 million tons (mt) of firewood is used for
cooking in rural areas and about 160 million tons of non-fodder agricultural
residues are produced every year in the country. The continued dependence of the
rural populace on biofuels, especially the demand for fuelwood, affects both forest
and agricultural systems. Firewood consumption trends suggest that the
consumption is, in fact, increasing steadily.
The burning of biomass fuels (fuelwood, crop residues and dried animal dung) is

often considered to be neutral in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

because the CO2emitted in the burning process are assumed to be reabsorbed in
the following growing season by replacement crops and trees. But the use of
biomass fuels can only be considered truly carbon-neutral if the biomass fuels are
harvested on a sustainable basis, i.e. a new tree is planted for each tree cut down,
and all the carbon in the fuel is converted to CO2during the burning process.
However, the harvesting of fuelwood is rarely done on a sustainable basis and its

combustion is often incomplete, with CO, CH4and non-methane hydrocarbons

being emitted. In Asia, for instance, production of these incompletely combusted
gasses account for 4.5% of total biomass fuel carbon emissions, which are
equivalent to 23% of CO2emissions on a 20-year global warming potential basis.

Traditional Rural Energy Use and Efficiency

One major drawback of biofuel use is that these fuels are used in traditional stoves

and furnaces, which are inherently inefficient. It is well known that conventional
mud stoves operate with thermal efficiencies of the order of 10% or less.
An estimated 20 million tons biomass is also used in traditional and rural

enterprises in India (Kishore, 1999). Survey of some biomass using enterprises

(Kishore and Rastogi, 1987; Mande et al., 1999, 2000) and available data show that
the end use efficiencies of devices used in such enterprises is also quite low.
Though the bio-resource base of agricultural countries like India is substantial, its

contribution to useful energy is low. An indirect consequence of the low energy use
efficiency is that the carbon emissions would be high. From the ratios of carbon
content to calorific value of several fuels, including biofuels and bio-derived fuels
as shown in Fig. , it is apparent that, except for hydrogen rich fuels like natural gas,
the carbon emitting potential of all fuels is comparable. The ratios of carbon
emissions per unit of useful energy, which take into account the device efficiency,
are shown in Fig. and it is obvious that traditionally used biofuels emit nearly ten
times more carbon into the atmosphere per unit of useful energy.
.

Traditional Rural Energy Use and Efficiency

One might argue that, since biofuels do not contribute to net carbon emissions,

the issue of end use energy efficiency is not very important. But considering the
fact that biomass is harvested unsustainably in many developing countries and
that the national forest covers in many of them is substantially lower than the
desired levels, more efficient utilization of biomass will definitely enhance the sink
effect of forests. From this perspective, climate change projects aimed at biofuel
conservation should get at least as much importance as afforestation projects.
A second issue related to biomass combustion in traditional devices is concerned

with products of incomplete combustion (PIC), chiefly carbon monoxide, methane,

total non-methane organic compounds (TNMOC) and N2O. These greenhouse gases
have higher global warming potentials (GWPs) and it has been shown that their
CO2 equivalent contribution is nearly the same as the actual CO2 emitted (Hayes
and Smith, 1994). Results of a study conducted for 28 stove-fuel combinations in
India (Smith et al., 2000) clearly establish that the currently practised biomass
cycles are not GHG neutral.

Traditional Rural Energy Use and Efficiency

Traditional Rural Energy Use and Efficiency

Traditional Rural Energy Use and Efficiency

Traditional Rural Energy Use and Efficiency

The Environmental Impact of Renewable Energy

Traditional Rural Energy Use and

Deforestation
Most developing countries depend heavily on biomass for their energy needs. For

example, in India, an estimated 220 million tons (mt) of firewood is used for
cooking in rural areas and about 160 million tons of non-fodder agricultural
residues are produced every year in the country. The continued dependence of the
rural populace on biofuels, especially the demand for fuelwood, affects both forest
and agricultural systems. Firewood consumption trends suggest that the
consumption is, in fact, increasing steadily.
The burning of biomass fuels (fuelwood, crop residues and dried animal dung) is

often considered to be neutral in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

because the CO2emitted in the burning process are assumed to be reabsorbed in
the following growing season by replacement crops and trees. But the use of
biomass fuels can only be considered truly carbon-neutral if the biomass fuels are
harvested on a sustainable basis, i.e. a new tree is planted for each tree cut down,
and all the carbon in the fuel is converted to CO2during the burning process.
However, the harvesting of fuelwood is rarely done on a sustainable basis and its

combustion is often incomplete, with CO, CH4and non-methane hydrocarbons

being emitted. In Asia, for instance, production of these incompletely combusted
gasses account for 4.5% of total biomass fuel carbon emissions, which are
equivalent to 23% of CO2emissions on a 20-year global warming potential basis.