Providing clean energy to poor countries is "essential" to their development, the head of the World Bank said Monday, according to DPA. Paul Wolfowitz, opening a World Bank conference on the issue, said lack of electricity is a major obstacle for doing business in developing countries. The World Bank president said 1.6 billion people have no access to the power grid, saying the lack of energy is "affecting basic human needs." With 2.6 billion people relying on biomass fuels, Wolfowitz pointed to estimates saying that up to 1.6 million people a year die as a result of inhaling smoke at home. Promoting the use of clean energy technologies would not only help the poor countries economically, but also help the environment, Wolfowitz said. Fighting poverty is difficult if one has to destroy the environment in the process, he warned.
