A Contribution to Reduce Oil Consumption

Reduction of Fossil energy utilization, Climate Change and economic progress for developing countries are the key themes of this book. It has been written for the Global Studies Program - a cross disciplinary masters program. The underlying research was conducted in southern and west- Africa, India and Germany. As the International Energy Agency (IEA) noted in its input papers to the 2007 G8 summit in Germany, energy efficiency gains can decrees the overall consumption by 30 %. However, this estimate holds true for industrialized nations. The picture for Africa is rather dismal: over the last 20 years the oil intensity of industrialized nations has decreased by more than 30 % whilst across Africa it has increased by roughly 5 %. The recent oil price increases are certainly aggravating the vulnerability of developing economies. The book at hand provides an innovative strategy to reduce national oil consumption, by taking the socio-economic circumstances of developing countries into consideration. Hence, the goal of economic progress can be supported by implementing this policy. Thus, the target group for this book are policy and decision makers, the development community, academia and the interested public.

Sebastian Veit, M.A. Social Science in Globalization, B.A. Hons in Business and Economics. Over the last two years he has been working on projects as a freelance consultant for the UNFCCC, GTZ and the World Bank. During his studies on four continents, he has gained an understanding of the importance to include "the local perspective" of people in the combat of mass poverty. By utilizing his inter disciplinary experience, he stresses the need to take peoples socio-economic as well as cultural backgrounds into consideration for a successful solution. His goal is to further deepen his expertise in development strategy and energy services, that contribute in a sustainable manner to poverty alleviation.