Addressing Energy Poverty: A Path to Sustainable Development

The Global Energy Access Landscape

Energy access remains a critical global issue, with disparities in both electricity and clean cooking solutions.

• Electricity: Around 759 million people worldwide lack access to electricity, for basic needs like lighting, refrigeration, and cooling.
• Cooking: Approximately 2.6 billion people depend on dirty biomass fuels and technologies for cooking (SEforALL, 2020), with significant health and environmental consequences.. This issue is particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Impact of Energy Poverty

Limited access to modern energy services hampers sustainable development in multiple ways:

• Health: Household air pollution from traditional cooking methods contributes to millions of premature deaths annually.
• Education: Lack of electricity limits study hours and access to educational resources.
• Economic Opportunities: Energy poverty restricts productive activities and income generation.
• Gender Equality: Women and girls often bear the brunt of energy poverty, spending hours collecting fuel and cooking in hazardous conditions.

Empowerment through Clean Energy

Solutions exist to address these challenges:

• For electricity: Decentralized solar and other renewable energy sources.
• For cooking: Clean cooking options ranging from improved biomass to LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas).

Strong energy access programs don't just provide electricity or fuel for cooking; they unlock deep social impact – often with surprising results. A clean energy revolution in sub-Saharan Africa is urgently needed to win the fight against energy poverty.

Clean energy provides a golden thread to deliver on the promise of Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It can unlock sustainable economic growth, improve human health and well-being, and enable women and children to lead more productive lives (UN, 2018; NCE, 2018).

By making access to energy goals more important, more visible, and more ambitious, governments will be better able to attract funding for its execution.

How Enabling Qapital is contributing to Access to Energy