New books you need to read

There are two excellent new books that have come across the EiD desk this week.  These are authored or co-authored by friends of EiD and should definitely be of interest for those involved in various aspects of sustainable energy

Energy Efficiency: The Definitive Guide to the Cheapest, Cleanest, Fastest Source of Energy by Steven Fawkes

Energy risk has reappeared on the corporate and social agenda with a bang and the complexity of the issues has increased many-fold since the days of the last great wave of concern following the oil crises of the 1970s. Steven Fawkes’ Energy Efficiency is a comprehensive guide for managers and policy-makers to the fundamental questions underpinning energy-efficiency and our responses to it.

Here you will find the flyer that explains the report and how to obtain it.  You can also find out more on Steve’s blog.

Unlocking Commercial Financing for Clean Energy in East Asia by Xiaodong Wang, Richard Stern, Dilip Limaye, Wolfgang Mostert, Yabei Zhang

In East Asia, all middle-income countries have national targets for energy efficiency and renewable energy, and some even have targets for carbon reduction. However, a major hurdle to achieving a sustainable energy path is mobilizing the required financing. Although the lion’s share of the investments are expected to come from the private sector, the challenge facing policy makers is how to unlock this commercial financing most cost effectively to scale up clean energy investments.

This World Bank report, written for an audience of government decision makers in middle-income and high-income countries, international financing communities, and practitioners, this report draws lessons to date from recent experience in applying public financing instruments and attempts to address the following issues: when and under what circumstances to use public financing instruments; which instrument to select; and how to design and implement them most effectively.

The report can be bought from the World Bank.  An electronic version is available here.