About 1.2 billion of the world’s people don’t have access to electricity, while 2.8 billion rely on wood or other solid fuels to cook and heat their homes. This results in indoor air pollution that killed over 3.5 million people in 2010.
About 1.8 billion people gained electricity connections between 1990 and 2010. But this was only slightly ahead of global population growth of 1.6 billion. The pace of electricity expansion needs to double to reach everyone by 2030. An even faster rate of expansion in safe cooking solutions is needed to cut to zero those households using solid fuels from the current 41% level. The carbon cost of such expansion is low; universal electricity access would increase global carbon dioxide emissions by less than one percent.
Sustainable Energy for All, a global coalition of governments, private sector, civil society and international organizations, aims to deliver universal access to electricity and safe cooking solutions, while also doubling the amount of renewable energy in the global energy mix from its current share of 18% to 36%. The initiative also seeks to double the rate of improvement in energy efficiency, reducing the compound annual growth rate of energy intensity to –2.6%. It seeks to reach these targets by 2030.
This initiative was launched in 2011 by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who now chairs its Advisory Board with World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. Its Advisory Board comprises distinguished leaders and experts from around the world who have pledged to act on this vision of a sustainable energy future. The initiative is supported in its work by a global facilitation team led by Kandeh Yumkella, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Sustainable Energy.