The rapid escalation of climate change means that even African, Caribbean and Pacific Island countries (known in the EU as ACP countries) - whose greenhouse gas emissions per capita are far below the global average - need to do what they can to minimise their contribution to global emissions as they develop. And they need support from the rich nations to do so.

At the same time, over 600 million people in ACP countries have no access to modern forms of energy.  Even though most of them live in areas rich in solar, wind, biomass or hydro resources, they lack the tools with which to harness those resources.

Download the Strategy for Developing Countries (pdf)

ACP governments and their development partners are faced with a stark choice. They have made a commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to alleviate poverty, and the linkages between energy access for the poor and improvement on all the MDG indicators are well-established.

However, the traditional means of improving energy access involve the kind of carbon-intensive development upon which the world's economy has been based ever since the industrial revolution – which for many rural communities means importing increasingly expensive diesel oil from faraway countries, to run generators.

There is an urgent need to decouple economic and social development from greenhouse gas emissions, to provide the poor with the services they desperately need, and to help the world’s poorest communities to get off diesel before the next price spike like the one of 2008.

To a certain extent, this decoupling can be achieved by means of sufficient investment in renewable energy technologies and rural and peri-urban electrification in the ACP regions.

But the effectiveness of such investments will depend entirely on the existence of legal and regulatory frameworks that ensure a predictable and secure environment for such investment.

In addition, only the development of strategies for regional co-operation and national co-ordination will ensure the most rational and efficient use of limited resources.

For the past two years, the Climate Parliament has been working with members of parliament from ACP countries to develop a strategy for developing countries to speed up the transition to a low carbon economy.