UK-based development charity Practical Action has joined forces with IBM to create a new charity that aims to raise £100m in five years to eradicate energy poverty across the globe.

Energy Aid will take a three-pronged approach to improve access to electricity for more than 1.3 billion people around the world who currently cannot use it.

First, a global campaign starting next year will seek to raise the issue of energy access in the public conscience.  Second, an open source of data, resources, technologies and research will be made available to NGOs, charities and other organisations to provide input to planning and project execution.

And third, Energy Aid will raise money and distribute funds to “long-term, game-changing projects” in South America, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.  The funding will support charities and other agencies to run energy projects in these regions, encouraging collaboration between the public, private and charity sectors to help local people to help themselves out of energy poverty.

Research published in October by the International Energy Agency identified that 2.7 billion people a year in poor countries still cook indoors on stoves fuelled by wood, dung, coal and other carcinogenic substances. This indoor smoke kills 1.4 million people a year.

The London School of Economics sent researchers to India and Peru to assess how Energy Aid could help improve access to cleaner fuels.  The researchers reported that many projects said they would welcome support from Energy Aid from the point of view of knowledge-sharing guidance on funding, and visibility on other projects.

The idea for Energy Aid came out of HRH Prince of Wales’ ‘Start’ sustainability summit organised by IBM last year.  At that event, Practical Action's CEO Simon Trace made a speech suggesting that the energy industry could club together on an initiative to tackle energy problems in developing countries, in the same way that the water industry did in the 1980s when it created WaterAid.

Since then, a number of IBM employees have devoted time to setting up the new charity and provided technological expertise to get the Open Knowledge Base up and running.
Energy Aid will be chaired by Stephen Leonard, the CEO of IBM UK and Ireland (pictured), while Simon Trace will be a trustee - but in a personal capacity, not as CEO of Practical Action.  

Energy Aid’s chief executive is Jonathan Steel, a technology expert and consultant who has been working for IBM on the Start activities for that last couple of years.

£100m over five years

Steel told civilsociety.co.uk that Energy Aid aimed to raise £100m in five years.

Simon Trace added that this would be raised principally through private-sector support, both cash and in-kind support, and also potentially from corporates' customers, via cause-related marketing campaigns and other customer fundraising.  

Once sufficient scale has been achieved, Energy Aid might also approach statutory authorities for match-funding, Trace said.

Practical Action expects to apply for funding from Energy Aid but will have to apply in the same way as any other organisation and will only be awarded them as the result of a successful application. As an Energy Aid trustee, Simon Trace will not be involved in the allocation of funds.