NYTimes | The average citizen of Nepal consumes about 100 kilowatt-hours of electricity in a year. Cambodians make do with 160. Bangladeshis are better off, consuming, on average, 260.
Then there is the fridge in your kitchen.
A typical 20-cubic-foot refrigerator — Energy Star-certified, to fit
our environmentally conscious times — runs through 300 to 600
kilowatt-hours a year.
American
diplomats are upset that dozens of countries — including Nepal,
Cambodia and Bangladesh — have flocked to join China’s new infrastructure investment bank, a potential rival to the World Bank and other financial institutions backed by the United States.
The reason for the defiance is not hard to find: The West’s environmental priorities are blocking their access to energy.
A typical American consumes, on average, about 13,000 kilowatt-hours of
electricity a year. The citizens of poor countries — including Nepalis,
Cambodians and Bangladeshis — may not aspire to that level of use, which
includes a great deal of waste. But they would appreciate assistance
from developed nations, and the financial institutions they control, to
build up the kind of energy infrastructure that could deliver the
comfort and abundance that Americans and Europeans enjoy.
Too often, the United States and its allies have said no.
The United States relies on coal, natural gas, hydroelectric
and nuclear power for about 95 percent of its electricity, said Todd
Moss, from the Center for Global Development. “Yet we place major restrictions on financing all four of these sources of power overseas.”
