Access to reliable and affordable energy, including cooking facilities
and electricity, is critical for economic development and achieving the UN's
Sustainable Development Goals. Lack of access to energy can have significant
health and economic consequences, particularly in developing countries. Around
9.1% of the global population lacks access to electricity, with sub-Saharan
Africa being the most affected region, where 53% of the population lives
without access. Around a third of the global population still relies on
inefficient and polluting cooking fuels. Access to electricity improves the
functionality of healthcare facilities, provides power for household appliances,
and facilitates access to safe drinking water, all of which can contribute to
reducing poverty and improving quality of life.
Around 733 million people globally lack access to electricity, with
sub-Saharan Africa being particularly affected, where 600 million people live
without access to electricity. Additionally, around a third of the global
population, or 2.4 billion people, use open fires or inefficient stoves fueled
by kerosene, biomass, and coal for cooking, which is linked to various illnesses
and deaths, particularly affecting women and children. A recent study showed
that around 700,000 deaths in Africa in 2019 were due to household air
pollution.
Since ancient times, human beings have exploited various sources of
primary energy (i.e. energy content that comes from non-renewable natural
resources (such as fossil fuels like oil, coal and gas) and renewable resources
(such as solar radiation, water, wind, geothermal) and transformed them into
useful forms such as heat, light, and electricity (secondary energy). The
non-renewable sources are exhaustible after prolonged exploitation. Coal is the
most abundant of the fossil fuels, and it has a long history of use by humans
for heating, cooking and other basic needs.
ACCESS TO CLEAN COOKING FUELS
Energy access is crucial for achieving sustainable development goals and
boosting economic growth. Millions of people lack access to modern energy
services and resort to inefficient forms of energy, leading to health hazards.
Around 4 billion people globally lack access to clean, reliable, and affordable
cooking energy, and 2.75 billion face significant access barriers. Cooking with
inefficient fuels causes air pollution and can lead to chronic respiratory
diseases, lower respiratory infections, lung cancer, stroke, and cardiovascular
diseases.
Access to clean and efficient cooking fuels and technologies remains a
significant challenge in many regions, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The
World Bank estimates that only 18% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa had
access to clean cooking fuels and technologies in 2020. This is linked to
chronic respiratory diseases, acute lower respiratory infections, lung cancer,
stroke and cardiovascular diseases. Scaling up clean cooking fuels and
technologies is crucial to avoid falling short of universal access by 2030. The
IEA estimates that 130 million people in Africa need to be moved from dirty
cooking fuels each year to achieve universal access to clean cooking fuels and
technologies by 2030.
ACCESS TO ELECTRICITY
Several countries around the world have attained universal access to
electricity, but almost 760 million people globally, mostly in the developing
regions of Asia and Africa, do not have such access. However, the share of
people gaining access to electricity is progressively increasing. For example,
from 2000 to 2020 in developing Asia, almost 1.2 billion people gained access
to electricity. In 2020, access to electricity in that region was estimated at
97 per cent of the population compared with 67 per cent in 2000. In contrast,
the population in Africa with access to electricity increased by a mere 24
million from 2000 to 2019. This indicates that the issue of poor access to
electricity is primarily a sub-Saharan African problem. Therefore, solutions must
be focused on this region of the world where progress has persistently been
elusive. Available data indicate that over 50 per cent of the population of
sub-Saharan Africa does not have access to electricity compared to the global
access rate of 90.4 per cent.
FACTORS INFLUENCING ACCESS TO CLEAN COOKING FUELS AND ELECTRICITY
Access to energy in sub-Saharan Africa is hindered by a variety of
factors, including poor generation capacity, aging infrastructure, high costs
of supply to remote areas, reliance on energy imports, and political economy
issues. Many of the utilities are state-owned and operate monopolies on
transmission and distribution infrastructure, which can lead to tariffs and
charges that do not reflect true costs. Additionally, off-grid access faces
challenges such as lack of infrastructure, planning, institutional support,
financing for entrepreneurs, and affordability for poorer households.
On the demand side, high connection charges relative to income levels
and high electricity tariffs make access to electricity unaffordable for poor
communities in urban areas, rural households, and small businesses. The tariffs
and connection charges in some sub-Saharan African countries are among the
highest in the world. Additionally, high upfront costs for improved cooking
stoves, fuel availability, low awareness, cultural and social norms, and
resistance to new technology make it difficult to switch from traditional fuels
to clean cooking fuels and technologies. The share of the global population
with access to clean cooking fuels and technologies has been increasing around
the world, but the slow progress in sub-Saharan Africa suggests that its
population may not have universal access by 2030. The number of people without
access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa decreased from 613 million in 2013
to 572 million in 2019, but the number increased in 2020 during the COVID-19
pandemic, largely due to pandemic-induced job losses and reductions in income
leading to affordability issues.
The demand for energy services in sub-Saharan Africa is growing rapidly
due to population growth. The IEA Stated Policies Scenario forecasts that
electricity demand on the continent will rise from about 700 TWh in 2019 to
over 1,600 TWh in 2040, with the fastest growth expected in countries excluding
North Africa and South Africa. To ensure access to modern energy services by
the population continent-wide, energy supply projects will need to be
implemented. Gas projects should incorporate decarbonization to avoid stranded
assets. Investment in lower-carbon-energy infrastructure projects, especially
gas pipelines, processing infrastructure, and liquefied petroleum gas, could
promote intraregional trade and boost global exports of African energy products
while also strengthening regional energy access. However, the current pace of
electrification and access to clean cooking fuels and technology is not fast
enough to meet the SDG 7 target by 2030. Achieving universal access to
electricity will require a good understanding of both supply-side and
demand-side challenges, as well as targeted policies and programs to stimulate
demand and develop available resources.
