(a) Promotion, etc., by United States in connection with international financial institutions
The United States Government, in connection with its voice and vote in the Inter-American Development Bank, the African Development Fund, and the Asian Development Bank, shall encourage such institutions—
(1) to promote the decentralized production of renewable energy;
(2) to identify renewable resources to produce energy in rural development projects and determine the feasibility of substituting them for systems using fossil fuel;
(3) to train personnel in developing technologies for getting energy from renewable resources;
(4) to support research into the use of renewable resources, including hydropower, biomass, solar photovoltaic, and solar thermal;
(5) to support an information network to make available to policymakers the full range of energy choices;
(6) to broaden their energy planning, analyses, and assessments to include consideration of the supply of, demand for, and possible uses of renewable resources; and
(7) to coordinate with the Agency for International Development and other aid organizations in supporting effective rural energy programs.
(b) "Renewable resource" defined
For purposes of this section, the term "renewable resource" means any energy resource which—
(1) meets the needs of rural communities;
(2) saves capital without wasting labor;
(3) is modest in scale and simple to install and maintain and which can be managed by local individuals;
(4) is acceptable and affordable; and
(5) does not damage the environment.
Amendments
1982—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 97–375 struck out subsec. (c) which directed the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Director of the United States International Development Cooperation Agency, to report to Congress not later than six months after June 3, 1980, and annually thereafter on the progress toward achieving the goals set forth in this title.
Congressional Statement of Findings Respecting Use of Renewable Resources for Energy Production in Poor and Developing Countries and Role of International Financial Institutions
Pub. L. 96–259, title VI, §601, June 3, 1980, 94 Stat. 432, provided that: "The Congress finds that—
"(1) without an adequate supply of energy at affordable prices the world's poor will continue to be deprived of jobs, food, water, shelter, and clothing, and poor countries will continue to be economically and politically unstable;
"(2) dependence on increasingly expensive fossil fuel resources consumes too much of the capital available to poor countries with the result that funds are not available to meet the basic needs of poor people;
"(3) in many developing countries the cost of large central generators and long distance electrical distribution makes it unlikely that rural energy by means of a national grid will contribute to meeting the needs of poor people;
"(4) only one of eight rural inhabitants lives in an area which has access to electricity and even fewer rural inhabitants actually have or can afford electricity;
"(5) wood, animal and agricultural waste, and other 'noncommercial' fuels still supply about half the total energy in developing countries and all but a seventh in rural sectors;
"(6) growing dependence of the world's poor on wood for heating and cooking has forced the overcutting of forests and as a consequence erosion and loss of available agricultural land; and
"(7) recent initiatives by the international financial institutions to develop and utilize decentralized solar, hydro, biomass, geothermal, and wind energy should be significantly expanded to make renewable energy resources increasingly available to the world's poor on a wide scale."
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