675 million people on global level lack access to electricity: Report
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The majority of those living without electricity reside in sub-Saharan Africa.
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A Lebanese boy holds a candle in front of a damaged building (AP)
According to a report released Tuesday by multiple international organizations, 675 million people globally still lack access to electricity, with Sub-Saharan Africa being home to the vast majority of them.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the United Nations Statistics Division, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization, despite significant efforts and some progress, the world continues to face a dramatic energy access gap.
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The data warned that the world was still on schedule to deliver clean and affordable energy access for everyone by 2030, one of the so-called Sustainable Development Goals adopted by all UN member countries in 2015.
The globe has observed "a recent slowdown in the global pace of electrification," according to Guangzhe Chen, the World Bank vice president for infrastructure.
While the number of people living without electricity has been slashed in half in the last decade, from 1.1 billion in 2010 to 675 million in 2021, the research stated that over 80% of them live in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the power access deficit has remained essentially constant since 2010.
It did, however, recognize gains elsewhere, including the rising use of renewables in the electricity sector but warned that this development was "insufficient" to meet the UN-set objectives.
Fatih Birol, the director of the IEA, stated that "while the clean energy transition is moving faster than many think, there is still a great deal of work needed to deliver sustainable, secure, and affordable access to modern energy services for the billions of people who live without it."
The paper also highlighted, using IRENA statistics, that public financial flows supporting clean energy in poorer nations have been falling even before the Covid epidemic.
It also discovered that growing debt levels and rising energy prices were making it more difficult to reach the aim of having universal access to clean cooking technologies and power within the next seven years.
Current forecasts suggest that if efforts are not scaled up further, the globe would still have 1.9 billion people without access to clean cooking techniques and 660 million without access to power in 2030.
According to the World Health Organization, 3.2 million people die each year as a result of illnesses induced by the use of harmful fuels and technology.
Chief of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that the next generation should be protected.
"Clean cooking technologies in homes and reliable electricity in healthcare facilities can play a crucial role in protecting the health of our most vulnerable populations."
