This paper studies the financial viability of electricity sectors in 39 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa using an approach similar to that in an earlier study, the Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic. The quasi-fiscal deficit in each country is calculated under two scenarios: existing...

The aggregate price per kilowatthour charged to commercial and industrial customers varies by a factor of more than 20 across 38 Sub-Saharan African countries studied. Tariff schedules also show large differences: Nearly half the countries do not use time-of-use pricing, about a fifth have no...

The pace of technological advance in the past few decades has opened new possibilities. Consider the technology for controlling emissions from cars, buses, and trucks. Government regulations have driven this technology as much as the technology has driven regulations, resulting in vehicle...

Between 2003 and 2012 the average annual world prices of gasoline, diesel, and kerosene in 160 countries more than doubled, while the prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) used for cooking and heating increased by two-thirds. Between January 2009 and January 2013, many countries did not pass...

Increases in world oil prices since 2004 have challenged consumers and oil-importing countries across the world. Oil prices temporarily fell sharply in 2009, only to triple three years later. The oil import share of gross domestic product rose by nearly half among net oil importers in just two...

This note examines changes in vulnerability to oil price increases over a five-year period ending in 2008. A decomposition analysis applied to one hundred and fifty-eight countries found that vulnerability had increased in eighty-two percent of countries, with more than half experiencing...

Recognition of the problem of indoor air pollution (IAP) and its deleterious effects of health is growing worldwide as efforts increase to understand and articulate the complex health-air pollution linkages. Recent WHO estimates indicate that indoor smoke for solid fuels causes 1.6 million...

Transport-related air pollution is increasingly contributing to environmental health risks in many developing country cities. The social costs of poor urban quality can be significant, making this issue an immediate priority. Long-term measures for dealing with the problem include urban...

In response to emerging epidemiological evidence of the toxicity of diesel vehicular emissions, there is growing interest in substituting conventional diesel with much cleaner natural gas in cities where ambient concentrations of particulate matter are markedly higher than what is...