Energy and the Oil-Importing Developing Countries
Joy Dunkerley 1 and
William Ramsay 1
1 Center for Energy Policy Research at Resources for the Future, 1755 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20036
Oil-importing developing countries will need more energy during the 1980's to sustain development and to support their subsistence sectors. Development plans must be revised to reflect the potentially disastrous effects of high-cost oil on foreign exchange reserves and on national indebtedness. Energy use efficiency must be increased, and wider use must be made of domestic sources of energy—of conventional fossil and hydro sources and of new and renewable options such as biomass and other solar resources. The international community can help by careful management of world financial flows and trade agreements, expansion of capital assistance, and provision of technical assistance. The importance of improving levels of scientific and technical expertise in the less-developed countries is a challege to the worldwide scientific and engineering community.
