The U.S., Brazil and a number of European and other countries worldwide have introduced various support schemes for bioethanol and biodiesel. The advantage of these biofuels is that they are relatively easily integrated with the current fossil fuel-based transport sector, at least up to a certain point.

In the contingent valuation method, both the goods being valued and the payment vehicles used to value them are mostly hypothetical. However, although numerous studies have examined the impact of experience with the good on the willingness to pay, less attention has been given to experience with the payment vehicles.

This book presents case studies from Pakistan, Costa Rica, South Africa and Ecuador that give a low- and middle-income country perspective on the potential for biofuel development. The focus is on the transport sector as this is the main use of liquid biofuels but co-benefit possibilities for use in domestic lighting, cooking and heating are noted.

This paper uses the input-output methodology known as structural decomposition analysis to discuss Namibian energy use. And the paper makes an additional contribution to the literature on structural decomposition analysis by showing that the hybrid units approach, which has frequently been used in other structural decomposition analyses and in other types of energy studies, is in fact unsuitable at least for this type of analysis.

This paper uses decomposition methodology to study whether the changes in Namibian aggregate energy intensity have been structurally driven – as in most developing countries studied to date – or whether they have been driven by changes in energy efficiency at the sectoral level.