Today, over 1 billion people worldwide have no electricity. Almost 40 percent of humanity – nearly 3 billion people – still use biomass, animal dung or other fuels that are dangerous for indoor cooking and heating, no different than was done hundreds of years ago.
Living in energy poverty is not simply an inconvenience; it’s a social and economic tragedy. According to a report by the World Bank, the lack of modern, efficient cooking fuels is “one of the world’s major public health challenges, causing more premature deaths than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.” According to the World Health Organization, more than 4 million people die each year from the effects of indoor air pollution, half of them children under the age of 5.
Every global citizen deserves access to safe, reliable, affordable energy and the human progress it enables. Energy opens the door to education, to sanitation and health care, and to the first steps on an economic pathway to better support families. Helping countries defeat energy poverty strengthens effective governments, spurs economic growth that creates openings for trade, and makes environmental improvement possible.
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