The “slowdown in the global rate of electrification” means that 675 million people, in 2021, will have lived without electricity. 80% of this group lives in sub-Saharan Africa.
About 675 million people around the world live without electricity, the vast majority of them in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a report published Tuesday by several organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank ( BM).
According to the report, the world is not on track to achieve the goal of sustainable development, adopted by the member states of the United Nations (UN) in 2015, to guarantee clean and affordable energy for all by 2030.
the world faces “a recent slowdown in the pace of global electrification,” World Bank Vice President Guangzhe Chen said in a statement.
And while the number of people living without electricity has nearly halved in the past decade, 675 million people still do not have it in 2021.
Around 80% of them live in sub-Saharan Africa, where the lack of access to electricity has remained almost unchanged in 2010.
“While the transition to clean energy is progressing faster than many expect, much remains to be done to provide sustainable access safe and affordable access to modern energy services for the billions of people who are deprived of them,” said the executive director of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, in the joint statement.
Progress has been made on certain fronts, such as increasing the use of renewable energy in the electricity sector, but it is not enough to meet the UN goals.
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Citing data from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the report also shows that international public financial flows for clean energy in low- and middle-income countries have declined since before the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the report, rising debt and rising energy prices cloud prospects for achieving universal access to clean cooking and electricity.
According to current projections, 1.9 billion people will not have access to clean cooking methods and 660 million will not have access to electricity by 2030 without new measures.
According to the WHO, 3.2 million people die every year from diseases caused by the use of polluting fuels and technologies.
Source: Observadora
