Joseph Inokotong, Abuja
The World Bank has projected that an estimated 650 million people will not have access to electricity by 2030 despite significant progress made in recent years.
Unfortunately, nine out of 10 of them will be living in sub-Saharan Africa.
This is contained in a new report produced by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Inter- national Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the World Bank and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
According to the report, more people have access to electricity than before, but the world is falling short of sustainable energy goals.
The new report states: “Despite significant progress in recent years, the world is falling short of meeting the global energy targets set in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030.
“Ensuring affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030 remains possible, but will require more sustained efforts, particularly to reach some of the world’s poorest populations and to improve energy sustainability.”
It pointed out that notable progress has been made on energy access in recent years, with the number of people living without electricity dropping to roughly 840 million from one billion in 2016 and 1.2 billion in 2010.
India, Bangladesh, Kenya and Myanmar are among countries that made the most progress since 2010, the report disclosed.
“However, without more sustained and stepped-up actions, 650 million people will still be left without access to electricity in 2030. Nine out of 10 of them will be living in sub-Saharan Africa,” the report further said.
Tracking SDG7: the Energy Progress Report also shows that great efforts have been made to deploy renew- able energy technology for electricity generation and to improve energy efficiency across the world.
Nonetheless, it states that access to clean cooking solutions and the use of renew- able energy in heat generation and transport are still lagging far behind the goals.
Maintaining and extend- ing the pace of progress in all regions and sectors will require stronger political commitment, long-term energy planning, increased private financing and adequate policy and fiscal incentives to spur faster deployment of new technologies, the report added.
The report tracks global, regional and country progress on the three targets of SDG7: access to energy and clean cooking, renewable energy and energy efficiency.