Comments on this example:
Demand management through fuel switching from fossil to biomass is economical, conservational and sustainable. It is economical because biomass is a cheap, conservational because it emits less carbon dioxide than fossil fuel, and sustainable because residues from agricultural practices, instead of being discarded, are brought back to produce energy. However, if biomass of crop residue was left to ferment and eventually natural gas is generated, then, the consequences of using natural gas as fuel should be considered. Because fermentation emits methane that is more potent than carbon dioxide in triggering the greenhouse effect.
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Sustainability of the project:
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Awareness and visions:
Adoption of biomass energy has evidentially improved environmental condition by reducing air pollution and reducing biomass waste. Apart from fossil fuel and biomass, we should not forget that there are other energy sources that could be even cleaner alternatives, such as, hydropower, solar power, wind power and nuclear power. All these energy sources have there advantages and disadvantages. The selection of which source to utilize depends on many aspects. Although, some of these energy sources are still at an experimental level.
Sustainable over time (not one-off): Although this programme was initiated by the government, the sustainability of it depends more on the actions of local communities and how they will carry the project on. If the communities have personal ownership over the project, they will become more dedicated and the programme should be able to go on in the longer run.
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Adaptability of the project to other situations:
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According to the Regional Wood Energy Development Programme in Asia "Wood energy (fuelwood and charcoal) is, and will remain, an important source of energy in South and Southeast Asia. In most countries between 20% and 80% of energy demand is met by wood. The use of woodfuels is still increasing, though not as fast as the use of fossil fuels" , we can see that in the ESCAP region, there still remains the high rural dependency on fuel wood that usually leads to the problem of deforestation. Assuming that agricultural communities throughout ESCAP have similar characteristics to the community in Guangdong province of China. If so, then the use of biomass in place of fossil fuel can be applied to any other agricultural communities in the region, since, crop residue and timber for energy generation are available within any agricultural community. If all agricultural communities in the ESCAP region switch to biomass instead of fossil fuel, the per capita emission of carbon dioxide in this region could be significantly reduced.
| Process of decision making and implementation: |
Integrating stakeholders: Many projects at community level show great success when support, in terms of finance, man-power, know-how, provided by external sources still remains. For this case, it demonstrates how a government-led initiative can bring about in a successful outcome. But what is the concern here is when support has been drawn out and the community is faced to continue to implement the project on their own, many failed. Therefore, it is important for supporting agencies to make sure that the community, apart from being able to practice the introduced technical know-how, but also, to be able to carry through the project amongst themselves when assistance is no longer around.
Procedures for feedback and review: In many countries such initiatives have been made under various projects, with possible donor funding. However, the programmes are never followed up or monitored.
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