Governments: Government of China - MoA Government of Ghana - MoE Government of Honduras - MoE Government of Morocco - MoE Government of South Africa - DME Government of Viet Nam - MoE	Major Groups: World LP Gas Association (WLPGA) (France) Local and international LPG suppliers/distributors () national NGOs and civil society organisations ()
UN System: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (United States of America)	Other intergovernmental organizations:
Other:

Primary Themes: Energy for sustainable development

Secondary Themes: Health and sustainable development Gender equality Agriculture Poverty eradication Means of Implementation (Trade, Finance, Technology, Transfer, etc.) Protecting and managing the natural resource base of economic and social development Rural development

This initiative is designed to support the achievement of critical energy-related sustainable development goals, specifically poverty reduction, environmental protection, and economic growth. This partnership addresses concrete barriers to meeting the thermal energy needs (heating, cooking, and heat using productive processes) of rural and peri-urban populations in developing countries through expanded use of a clean-burning, readily-available fuel: liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Over 2 billion people in developing countries depend on traditional fuels including wood, animal and crop residues, and charcoal, to meet their heating, cooking and industrial needs. This has adverse health effects on women and children, degrades the local natural resources base and contributes to global environmental degradation through the emission of unburned hydrocarbons. Social and economic limitations for women, low quality energy services in heat using industries due to fuel inefficiency, and lost opportunities for agricultural product processing, are all directly related to traditional fuel use patterns.
The LPG Challenge will bring LPG to rural populations by linking UNDP's knowledge and experience in rural development and community consultation together with industry suppliers of LPG and the appliances required for its utilization. The key issue is to address market and technical barriers to the expanded use of LPG and to design local partnerships, business models and financing mechanisms to overcome these barriers. This will be accomplished through local dialogue processes and partnerships involving government officials, consumer representatives, current LGP market participants (local and international business), local entities that operate in rural communities, UNDP and other multilateral and bilateral funding agencies committed to bringing modern energy (electricity and clean fuels) to rural communities.

• Education/building awareness
• Technology transfer/exchange

Energy is vital for social and economic development and directly impacts local, national and global environmental conditions. This initiative addresses the heat related aspects of energy services provision. Energy's vital linkages to support rural development including through opening up value added economic opportunities in the agriculture sector was recognized in Chapter 14 of Agenda 21 on rural development. Though there is no specific chapter dealing with energy in Agenda 21, energy's vital link with the social, economic and environmental aspects of sustainable development is referred to throughout Agenda 21 in the chapters dealing with industry, transport, climate, health and women. These vital linkages were reaffirmed at the Ninth meeting of the Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD-9), which specifically recommended increased efforts to expand the use of cleaner and efficient fuels to meet domestic and industrial energy needs.
With regard to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), while there is no specific goal on energy, the services that it provides are required as inputs to meet all of the MDGs; this is especially true with regard to poverty reduction. Without increased energy services to support jobs creation, economic activities, and increased value added production in the agricultural sector, it is unlikely that poverty can be reduced. Similarly, while millions of women and girl children spend long hours in the collection and transport of traditional fuels, it is unlikely that poverty can be reduced nor women empowered unless basic household energy needs are met. The MDG on gender quality (Goal 3) cannot be achieved if girls are unable to attend school due to family fuel collection obligations. Fuels are essential for cooking food and boiling water, which are obvious inputs to meeting the MDGs on hunger (MDG 2) and sanitation (MDG 10) respectively.
With respect to both Agenda 21 and the Millennium Declaration, energy is both everywhere (an essential means) and nowhere (no defined goals) at the same time. This initiative has clear linkages to the objectives expressed in both Agenda 21 and the Millennium Declaration.
A readily available, clean-burning fuel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is an important alternative to address indoor air pollution-related health concerns associated with the use of traditional fuels. Furthermore, access to modern fuels such as LPG also supports the key Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of poverty alleviation by providing energy that can be harnessed for productive, income-generating activities, such as agricultural processing, food processing, and industrial activities including ceramics firing, metal working, and brick-making. In the global context, although it is a fossil fuel--making it unsustainable in the long-term--when used as a bridge to renewable energy carriers (such as biofuels) that are presently less developed, LPG has significant environmental advantages. For example, if two billion people in rural areas of developing countries were to begin using LPG to meet their thermal energy needs, this would correspond to under 3% of current annual oil consumption, and result in a less than 1% increase in annual global energy use, and a net decrease in greenhouse gas emissions, given that LPG is more efficient and cleaner burning than traditional fuels. Relevant Sections of Agenda 21
Relevant Sections of the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21
Relevant Sections of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation

None reported