Access to electricity and modern energy

Poor people's energy outlook

One and a half billion of the world's people have no access to electricity at all. Three billion people rely on traditional biomass and coal for cooking.

The two graphs below contrast the current business as usual trajectory for energy access with what is required if the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) are to be achieved; the first looks at electricity, the second at fuels for cooking.

While gains have been made in access to electricity over the past two decades, huge gaps remain. This is especially clear in Sub-Saharan Africa, where over 70% of the population does not have access to electricity. To reach its MDG targets, the region needs to cut that figure in half.

Access to modern fuels for cooking presents an even greater and more widespread challenge. While there has been modest improvement in overall numbers, many billions of people will miss the MDG targets simply because they do not have adequate fuels to cook with.

To people living in energy poverty, these statistics are life and death issues. Indoor smoke from traditional cookstoves causes 1.4 million deaths per year. And it is often women who are hit hardest by energy poverty. It is they who are condemned to spend much of their day on menial tasks such as gathering wood so the family can eat and stay warm - tasks that can be made easier with access to energy. Without access to energy, daughters are doomed to follow in their mothers' footsteps.

The Poor People's Energy Outlook report seeks to go past the statistics - it describes in unprecedented detail what energy access and deprivation means to people. It shows that gaining access to energy can transform the lives of people living in poverty.

The scale of the challenge is daunting. However, Practical Action believes that universal energy access is a goal which can be met by 2030 - provided there is the political will and the commitment to do it.

Read more in the Poor People's Energy Outlook report