How is the world doing on energy access?
- 1.2. billion people – almost the population of India – don’t have access to electricity, 2.8 billion have to rely on wood or other biomass to cook and heat their homes.
- We will need a massive effort to expand access to electricity and safe cooking fuels in 20 countries in developing Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
- About 80% of those without access to modern energy live in rural areas. Although 1.7 billion people gained access to electricity between 1990 - 2010, this is only slightly ahead of population growth of 1.6 billion over the same period. The pace of expansion will have to double to meet the 100% access target by 2030. To bring electricity to that one billion plus people using conventional energy sources would increase global carbon dioxide emissions by less than one percent.
- High-impact countries offer the most potential to make rapid progress towards the goals. Twenty high-impact countries in Asia and Africa account for about two-thirds those without access to electricity, and three-quarters of those who use solid fuels—wood, charcoal, animal and crop waste, and coal—to cook or heat their homes. The indoor air pollution that results causes about four million premature deaths a year, most of them women and children.