The panel discussion, entitled, The Rural Energy Challenge: Meeting the Needs of the Poor, featured speakers from the UN, World Bank and nongovernmental organizations (NGO). It was sponsored by the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and chaired by Kui-nang Mak, the chief of the Energy and Transportation Branch of UNDESA.

The speaker representing UNDESA, J. Gururaja informed the people gathered at the session that two billion people in the world lack access to modern energy services. "This is the most pitiable state of affairs facing two billion people," he said.

This ties into development issues, he explained, as access to energy services is a prerequisite to achieve the UN's poverty alleviation goal. The UN hopes to reduce by half the number of people living under one dollar a day, by 2015.

There is not one sole solution to the problem, he said. According to him, it calls for a "confluence of policies" at the local and national level. He went on to say that the supportive role of the international community is also of vital importance.

Gururaja said there should be a transition to liquid or gaseous fuels for cooking and heating and rural areas should be electrified. In order to do this, funding is required, however many governments have inadequate resources for this. Thus there should be new approaches to public- private partnerships to remedy this situation.

The solution to the problem does also lie with individuals of the community. Gururaja said people's perceptions about rural energy need to change. They need to realize that it is a commercial product and the government cannot provide it free for them. They themselves can form partnerships because community involvement in public-private partnerships is important.

He admitted that this is a long-term goal. In the short run, people will not be able to fund any sort of partnerships. Hence, governments need to subsidies energy. However, in the long term there should be a commercial plan in place which does not include subsidies.

In a joint presentation by Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme (ESMAP), sponsored by the World Bank and the Clean Energy Group, the lack of energy services were once again related to development. Dominique Lallement, manager of ESMAP said that the number of children under the age of five dying from diarrhea can be reduced by access to clean water. However, this requires energy to extract water or to boil water, depending on the circumstances.

Judy Siegal, Managing Director of the Clean Energy Group, who joined Lallement in the presentation, echoed Gururaja's sentiments when she said that no one agency alone can find a solution to the energy problem. She said that action needs to be taken for sustainable energy access and to broaden solutions to the access problem.

She acknowledged that funding still remains a problem. She said that more funding needs to come from the World Bank and other development banks. She went on to say that the energy problem is too focused on power. Heating and cooking needs should be addressed as well.

Susan McDade of the UNDP agreed with Siegal's last point. "Electricity is important. But poor people do not eat on light," she said. She said energy for cooking and heating is also vitally important.

She mentioned LP Gas (LPG) which is a fossil fuel would be an alternative solution. She said this was an accessible, available and affordable source of energy for rural areas. Countries such as Brazil and India use LPG as an alternative fuel in rural areas.