World Leaders Negotiate on Energy Access

As world leaders enter into final negotiations ahead of the Copenhagen climate talks, almost a quarter of the global population 1.5 billion people – live without electricity, 80 per cent of them in the least developed countries (LDCs) of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

The release came from a new United Nations report that shines alight on the plight of the three billion people without access to modern energy services.

The report entitled the Energy Access situation in Developing Countries, a Review following on the least Developed Countries and sub-Saharan Africa was produced by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)  in partnership with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and with support from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

“Almost half of humanity is completely disconnected from the debate on how to drive human progress with less emission and greener energy because their reality is much more basic than that: they carry heavy loads of water and food on their backs because they don’t have transport, they cook over wood fires that damage their health, not with electricity, gas or oil”, said Olarkyorven, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of  Development Policy at UNNDP.

We must ensure that the energy needs of these people are central to a new climate agreement”, he said. According to the Report to halve the proportion of people living in poverty by 2015 – the first of eight, internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – 1.2 billion more people will need access to electricity and two billion more people will need access to modern fuels like natural gas or Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), also called propane.

Two million people die every day from cases associated with exposure to smoke from cooking with biomass and coal and 99 per cent of those deaths occur in developing countries.

In LDCs and Sub-Saharan Africa, half of all deaths from pneumonia in children under five years, chronic lung disease and lung cancer in adults are attributed to the use of solid fuel, compared with 38 per cent in developing countries overall.

“Expanding energy access is essential to tackle global purity. It needs to happen at the lowest cost and in the cleanest and most sustainable way possible to help developing countries establish a low-carbon  route to development”, said Mr. Kjorven.

The IEA UNDP and WHO have formed forces to tackle energy poverty across the developing world. The recently launched IEA world Energy outlook 2009 seeks to add momentum to the upcoming Copenhagen talks around the issue of energy, detailing practical steps needed for a sustainable energy future as part of a global climate deal.

“The time has come to make hard choices needed to combat climate change and enhance global energy security, and at the same time we should not forget 1.5 billion people who have no access to electricity in the developing world”, said Dr. Faith Burol, Chief Economist of IEA. “The world Energy Outlook 2009 demonstrates that containing climate change is possible but will require a profound transformation of  the global energy system. I hope to see a strong signal sent from Copenhagen to the energy sector to kick-off this transformation”, she said.