What energy could be more cost-effective than energy that’s never used in the first place? No wonder governments are increasingly looking at energy efficiency as the “first fuel” and “a source of energy in its own right,” as the International Energy Agency puts it. For this month’s newsletter, the Energy and Climate Partnership of the […]

Far too many people in Latin America and the Caribbean live in substandard dwellings, often built with poor materials and lacking basic infrastructure services. A study by the Inter-American Development Bank put the number at 59 million people, or one in three families. An organization called Weatherizers Without Borders (WWB) is working in Argentina and […]

In Valdivia, a city of about 160,000 people in southern Chile, a university research team set about analyzing how best to cut energy use in public buildings. Seeking the biggest bang for the buck, the team focused on three schools and City Hall. First, a bit of context. Valdivia sees more than its share of […]

In Mexico, a widely accessible financing mechanism—the “Green Mortgage”—makes it easy for homebuyers to install energy-efficient appliances, low-flow toilets, LED lighting, solar water heaters, and a host of other “ecotechnologies.” Through its Green Mortgage program, the housing lender Infonavit—the name stands for the Institute of the National Housing Fund for Workers—provides a loan add-on, on […]