Energy for Sustainable Development

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Subject: ENERGY For SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

This note will provide answers to the following questions. (i) What is it about? (ii) How can you subscribe to it? (iii) How can you write for it?

ENERGY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT is published by an international NGO called "The International Energy Initiative" (IEI). IEI is a Southern-led, Southern located South-North partnership. IEI is a small independent non-governmental public-purpose international organization that networks existing energy-related institutions and groups, particularly those functioning in developing countries.

IEI's objective is to promote the efficient production and use of energy for sustainable development. Its focus is on the developing countries. IEI's activities span information exchange, training, analysis, advocacy and action. IEI has decided to amplify these activities by publishing a journal that would be:

(i) a vehicle for communication and exchange of information; (ii) a source for reports of training efforts; (iii) a medium for conveying the results of analysis: (iv) a platform for advocacy; and (v) a way of learning about action-oriented projects.

The proposed Journal will be directed towards all actors involved in the planning, decision-making, financing, establishing, managing, operating and using energy systems of developing countries. Thus it will address energy consumers, distributors, generators, end-use equipment manufacturers and suppliers/providers, financial institutions, governments, international agencies. The readership is expected to come from both the South and North.

The Journal will view energy, not as an end in itself, but as an instrument of sustainable development. The Journal will be directed to energy services as the measure of development, rather than the magnitude of energy consumption. Its approach to energy will be development-focussed , end-use-oriented and service- directed.

The Journal will deal with all aspects of the "fuel" cycle of energy, from source to service involving the generation, transmission/transport, distribution and end-uses of energy. On the source side it will concentrate on renewable sources, particularly those that can be established in a decentralized manner for dispersed human settlements since a substantial fraction of the developing world live in such small scattered communities. Biomass, wind, solar, and small hydel sources will receive special attention. But "clean" centralized sources will not be ignored because they have a substantial role to play during transition away from fossil-fuel-based energy systems. On the end-use side it will focus on efficiency improvements.

The Journal is not a specialist's journal. It will attempt to be abridge between specialized journals and trade/in-house bulletins. It will be a multidisciplinary journal in the sense that it will attempt to be understandable to all categories of energy actors. The journal will strive to dissuade authors resorting to jargon, however common such jargon be to their descipline; it will urge them to express their arguments/thoughts in terms that can be followed by others actively working in the field of energy but not in the authors'specialization. It will concern itself with energy goals, strategies and policies as well as with energy plans, programs and projects. It will provide a platform for a dialogue between project project formulators, project executors, project operators and project beneficiaries. Thus the journal will focus not only on the hardware, i.e., on the policy environment, institutions, financing, management, human resource development, etc.

The Journal will promote South-South interactions to address the problems of energy systems in developing countries. At the same time it will be a vehicle of communication between Southern and Northern energy actors to tackle these problems.

The Journal will attempt a balanced treatment of: (i) end-use efficiency (in the industrial, transport, domestic, commercial and agricultural sectors) and renewables (biomass, photovoltaic, solar thermal, wind, small hydel, etc.): (ii) generation (including development) of energy technologies and their dissemination; (iii) hardware and software - hardware for the conversdion of primary energy as found in nature into convenient secondary energy carriers, for energy utilization in end-use devices, and software (policies, institutions, financing, human resource development, etc.); (iv) energy plans, programs and projects; and (v) energy systems in Africa, Latin America and Asia and what can be learned from the industrialized countries.

The journal will appear six times an year and the first issue appeared in May 1994.

The subscription costs are US$ 4 for individuals and US$ 8 for institutions in developing countries. The costs for institutions and individuals in the industrialized countries will be US$70. The subscription for India and Nepal is Rs.120 for individuals and Rs.240 for institutions and can be sent either by Money Order or cheque to

Energy for Sustainable Development 25/5 Borebank Road, Benson Town Bangalore - 560046 India Telephone/Fax: +91 - 80 - 5588 426 e-mail: initiative.energy@vsnl.ernet.in

All other subscribers should send their subscriptions by check payable to International Energy Initiative to

International Energy Initiative Walnut Plaza, 2 Erie St, Montclair, NJ 07042 USA Tel:+1 - 201 - 509 7900 Fax:+1 - 201 - 509 7888

For all other modes of payment please address your enquiries to Gina Rodolico at the above address.

The final question concerns the Contents of the Journals. The current thinking is as follows.

NEWS

These are a series of brief reports. They can highlight certain aspects covered in the body of the journal. It can also be concerned with the presentation of arguments for/against some of the issues that come out of the articles. This group can also include descriptions of meetings/short courses on energy. These can be voluntary contributions, can be actively sought after by the Editorial Team, or can be done by a member of the editorial team. If you have something to contribute to this section, send it to Dr.S.Rajagopalan at the Bangalore address.

CORRESPONDENCE

This more or less follows the style of letters to the editor in newspapers and news magazines. These also can be directly addressed to Bangalore.

ARTICLES

These will be limited to about two or three and in general will have a rather broad scope and impact. These can be by way of review articles. In general these can be commissioned by the journal. Voluntary contributions to these group are welcome, but prospective authors are urged to clear the subject matter with the Editor by writing a synopsis not exceeding 500 words. While the length of these articles are negotiable, in no case can they exceed 10,000 words of text. In general the textual matter should be accompanied by display items which can occupy about half the length of the textual matter. The journal treats tables, figures, cartoons and photograpphs as display matter. All contributions under this category should be sent to the Editor at the following address.

K.Krishna Prasad Editor, Energy for Sustainable Development W & S Building Eindhoven University of Technology P.O.Box 513 5600 MB Eindhoven The Netherlands

Tel:+31 - 40 - 473168 Fax:+31 - 40 - 464151 e-mail: prasad@tn7.phys.tue.nl

All articles whether solicited by the journal or voluntatily contributed will go through peer review. In general the Editor can return a paper that is voluntarily contributed particularly when a synopsis has not been cleared by him if he finds it unsuitable for publication in ESD.

LETTERS

Letters in ESD jargon are really short articles. It has to be pointed out that these are not letters as the expression is used by Newspapers and News magazines. Such contributions go under the category of correspondence in ESD.

ESD's ambition is to make these contributions to be the backbone of the journal. The idea behind these contributions is that these are narrow in focus and develop a single theme. There can be ten or more in each issue. The contributions under this category can be about a specific energy project or present experiences with some specific end use device. Market studies for different types of energy products would be of interest. Specific policy issues can be highlighted. End-user profiles can be summarized. So on and so forth.

A length of about 1000 words is and a maximum of 4 display items for such contributions. However ESD considers 500 words to be too short and 2000 words too long. An important factor here is that each display item can carry its own independent notes that can run to 300 words. Thus carefully arranged manuscripts can have upto 2700 words of text if they are distributed beteween the running text and the display items.

All contributions to this category will be peer reviewed.

They can be sent to the Editor at Eindhoven address.

The point about the letters is that they can be prepared fast, reviewed fast, reviewed fast and published fast. It is the intention of the journal to build this category of contributions into a fast and dynamic information exchange system.

There are other types of contributions like book reviews, technology reviews.

In the next bulletin I shall provide the contents of the first issue.

Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to send it to me.

If you have come thus far, the man who wrote this piece is K.Krishna Prasad, the Editor of ESD!