One in 10 people lack electricity and the pandemic will likely make it harder still to meet a global goal of getting power to everyone by 2030, international organisations said on Thursday. An annual report tracking progress on sustainable energy said more than a billion people have won access to electricity since 2010, with 90% of the planet connected in 2018. But that still left 789 million people without power. And even before the outbreak of COVID-19 threw up new obstacles, the report estimated 620 million people would remain without electricity in 2030, 85% of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
The report said disruptions caused by coronavirus lockdowns and their economic fallout would likely affect electrification, slowing and in some cases reversing advances. Some utilities and off-grid providers are expected to face financial difficulties, said the report from the IEA, the International Renewable Energy Agency, the U.N. Statistics Division, the World Bank and the World Health Organization. COVID-19 has also disrupted supply chains and limited the ability of many to pay for their services, it added.
The report showed that efforts to provide poor families, especially in rural communities, with cleaner cooking methods continued to stagnate, despite gains in large parts of Asia. In 2018, 2.8 billon people were cooking with smoky fuels like kerosene, coal and wood, compared with 3 billion in 2010. Under current and planned policies, 2.3 billion people would still not be using clean cooking fuels and technologies in 2030, falling short of a goal for universal access by almost 30%. The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to worsen the exposure of women and children to air pollution at home, which already causes close to 4 million deaths a year, the report warned.
Source: Trust
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