Challenges in meeting increasing power demand of developing economies without damaging the environment

With the increasing share of global emission from developing countries, the importance of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction in these countries cannot be neglected in order to address the global warming issue. The developed countries have invested tremendously in and proclaimed renewable energy and associated smart power technologies as a possible solution to meet their energy demands and reduce their GHG emissions at the same time. However, it is found that the adoption rate of these technologies in development economies is limited with little results achieved in GHG emission reduction. In this paper, the possible causes of the low success rate in developing economies are investigated. The unique characteristics and priorities of the developing economies, which are different from the developed world, are analyzed with data to identify the causes. Potential alternative measures that may better suit these unique characteristics are explored.