Changes

Biomass, in the form of firewood, charcoal, agricultural residues, or dried animal dung is already the main energy resource for the majority of the poorer half of humanity, over 2 000 million people. They currently use 15% or more of total world energy, entirely in the form of biomass. Certain poorer countries depend on biomass fuels at present for over 90% of their energy needs (i.e. mainly for cooking fuel). It has been estimated that 53% of energy use in Africa, 17% in Asia and 8% in Latin America is currently met from biomass resources. Therefore biomass is already a huge and vital economic resource, although it is usually informally exploited mainly for cooking purposes and still remains rarely used for the production of shaft power via heat engines, and even less so for irrigation pumping. But using biogas for pumps in irrigation is gaining in popularity in India and elsewhere, as the savings in petroleum fuel prices are great.