Bypassing oil and the atom

The Bonn Summit of July 1978 promised a joint OECD review of national aid programmes in the energy field. But any new energy aid efforts must resolve a conflict between the desire to provide exports and the need to devise cheap and easily maintained energy sources for rural areas of the Third World. The authors argue that multilateral aid agencies, which are more remote from the direct pressure of international industrial competition than most aid programmes, must be encouraged to take the lead in expanding their 'renewables' programmes. (author)