Abstract
Energy has been deeply linked to the history of mankind and to its development. Some of the natural forces which are today referred to as renewable energies, such as solar, wind, hydro and biomass have been known and used for centuries. Among all the different sources of energy, renewables were the first to satisfy human energy needs. Today the opportunity to overcome the development divide strongly depends on the availability of energy, and hence, the nexus between energy and sustainable development needs to be better explored in order to understand how energy can contribute to poverty reduction. In this scenario, in the chapter it is shown how renewable energies and distributed generation play a key role as they allow the utilization of local resources while preserving the environment, creating employment, promoting income generation, capacity building and local empowerment.
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Notes
- 1.
The discussion on the specific contents of these SDGs is currently (summer 2013) opened and updated on http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/.
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Colombo, E., Masera, D., Bologna, S. (2013). Renewable Energies to Promote Local Development. In: Colombo, E., Bologna, S., Masera, D. (eds) Renewable Energy for Unleashing Sustainable Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00284-2_1
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