The World Bank, Laos and Renewable Energy Revolution in the Making: Challenges in Alleviating Poverty and Mitigating Climate Change

The World Bank is among the most dominant actors in defining objectives for energy development. It has announced that it is committed to nothing less than a revolution in the rate and scale of investments in renewables. Renewable energy production is seen to create win–win situations, where both poverty alleviation and climate change mitigation targets can be met. Synergies within the energy–poverty–climate nexus are, however, not self-evident. This article analyzes, firstly, how the win-win policy narrative has emerged in the World Bank's energy policy. Secondly, it assesses how the World Bank has responded to the twin challenge of poverty alleviation and climate change mitigation in its renewable energy projects. In recent years, the two main renewable energy forms the Bank has financed have been large-scale hydropower as an on-grid solution and solar home systems (SHS) as an off-grid solution. Laos is an illustrative case for these trends. There, the World Bank has on the one hand supported controversial large-scale hydropower development that is linked to regional power trade scheme in the Mekong region. On the other hand, it has also funded rural electrification projects that include an off-grid component implemented with SHS. The article discusses what these developments in Laos tell about the World Bank's role in conducting a revolution in renewables. The research material consists of policy and project documents, expert interviews and village-level fieldwork.