Desertification, energy consumption and liquified petroleum gas use, with an emphasis on Africa Andrea Baranzini University of Geneva, University Centre for the Study of Energy Problems, 4 ch. de Conches, CH-1231 Conches-Genève, Switzerland José Goldemberg Universidade de São Paulo, Institudo de Electrotécnica e Energia, Av. Prof. Almedia Prado 925, Cidade Universitária, 05508-900 São Paulo - SP, Brazil In this paper, we focus on a human activity that may contribute to desertification, namely defores- tation resulting from fuelwood and charcoal needs for energy consumption. Our aim is to demon- strate that liquified petroleum gas (LPG) could be a financially attractive energy source which may reduce the pressure to use forests for their energy products. 1. Introduction Desertification is a serious but complex and uncertain phenomenon, threatening the living standards of the pre- sent and future generations, especially in developing countries. According to the UNEP [1992], more than 100 countries and perhaps 900 million people are suffering from the ecological, economic and social consequences of desertification. While the preceding data are impressive, it should be noted that the extent of desertification is not well known. There exists relatively little scientific evidence based on field research for the many statements on the global extent of the problem, though this does not mean that desertifi- cation is not happening or that it is not a serious problem [cf. Nelson, 1990]. Generally, the causes of desertification lie in climate change and human activities, but separating out the inter- related impacts of these factors is difficult, and scientific evidence is extremely scarce [Hulme and Kelly, 1993; Nelson, 1993] [1] . Despite the huge uncertainties and complexities, we as- sume that significant progress can be made in working on the human activities related to desertification. In this pa- per, we will concentrate on energy consumption, with a special focus on Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Indeed, in these countries, energy policies were mainly driven by the assumption that energy consumption is related to defor- estation, which may eventually lead to desertification [cf. Enda, 1995; Karekezi and Turyareeba, 1995] [2] . Our paper is organized as follows [3] . In Section 2, we present some main determinants of energy consumption. In Section 3, a simple provocative example will try to assess the financial advantage of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) relative to fuelwood. Finally, Section 4 stresses some policy recommendations resulting from our analysis, and Section 5 concludes the article. 2. Energy consumption and desertification SSA commercial energy consumption is the lowest in the world: it is even less than half the average of developing countries [Davidson and Karekezi, 1993] [4] . However, the main reason, apart from relatively low national output, for this fact is that biomass fuels dominate the energy sector, accounting for 50 to 90 per cent of total energy supply in SSA countries. Biomass fuels could be an environmen- tally sound energy source, being renewable, in principle. However, current practices lead to intense deforestation, thus probably contributing to desertification. The rate of deforestation in Africa as a whole between 1980 and 1990 was the highest in the world, averaging 1.7% per year [UNEP, 1991]. Although not the only cause of deforesta- tion, fuelwood consumption indisputably increases fast cutting into the capital stock of trees, and the effects are most clearly in evidence in the vicinity of cities. Energy policy-makers in Africa are faced with a bewil- dering array of challenges, opportunities and constraints. Social, economic, demographic and environmental factors are all interrelated in various and complex ways, which means that any energy policy should be holistic in nature and multisectoral. For example, non-energy-related poli- cies such as clearing for agriculture and logging decrease the availability of low-cost fuelwood energy supplies. However, Africa is potentially endowed with a rich source of biomass energy, in the form of forests, wood- lands, agricultural residues and urban wastes. Moreover, Africa is rich in renewable resources such as hydro, wind, and solar power, and abundant reserves of less polluting fossil fuels, such as natural gas [cf. Karekezi and Mac- Kenzie, 1993] [5] . Yet, these resources are highly unevenly distributed, their potential is not exploited or it is used in an inefficient manner. In this paper, we focus on the household sector, as in SSA this sector is the main consumer of energy: domestic Energy for Sustainable Development l Volume II No. 5 l January 1996 Articles 32