Some 840 million people still lack access to electricity, more than 10% of the world’s population and most of it concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, despite “notable advances” in the last decade, the World Bank reported today (WB ).
The financing agency for development stressed that the progress of recent years have gradually reduced the number of people without electricity, after standing at 1.2 billion in 2010 to 1 billion in 2016 and the current 840 million.
The greatest progress took place in India, Bangladesh, Kenya and Burma.
The biggest challenge is in the most remote areas, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where 570 million people still live without electricity.
In this region, only 44% of the population have electricity, compared to 89% globally.
Some of the most dramatic cases are those in Chad, where only 11% of the population has electricity; the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with 19%; Liberia, 21%; Sierra Leone, 23%, and Madagascar, with only 24% of the population with that service.
“The progress we have seen over the past few years is encouraging, the number of people without electricity has fallen to 840 million, but we still have a lot to do since most of them live in the poorest countries,” said Riccardo Puliti, director of Energy of the BM in a statement.
Universal access to affordable and reliable energy services is one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the UN for 2030.
Likewise, the report of the multilateral organization valued positively the achievements reached in renewable energy, which accounted for 17.5% of total global consumption compared to 16.6% in 2010.
However, he stressed that renewables have increased rapidly in terms of electricity generation but have done so at a slower pace in terms of heating and transport.
Another important aspect is the “clean kitchens”, designed to prevent smoke inside homes and a factor that especially affects women and children through the burning of coal and wood.
The use of “clean kitchens” globally went from 57% in 2010 to 61% in 2017. (EFEUSA) .-
