But with last month’s recent launch of the UN’s Decade of Sustainable Energy for All (SE4A) initiative, running from 2014-24, there is no longer any escaping it: renewable energy has been thrust unequivocally to the centre of the global development agenda, with all the attendant benefits and baggage.

The SE4A scheme comes with three formal targets, all with a 2030 deadline: access to modern energy services for all of humanity; a doubling in the uptake of energy-efficiency measures; and a doubling of the share of renewables in the global energy mix, from about 18% at present.

Few