Modern energy for all
Energy is a critical enabler. Every advanced economy has required secure access to modern sources of energy to underpin its development and growing prosperity. In developing countries, access to affordable and reliable energy services is fundamental to reducing poverty and improving health, increasing productivity, enhancing competitiveness and promoting economic growth. This is because it is essential for the provision of clean water, sanitation and healthcare, and provides great benefits to development through the provision of reliable and efficient lighting, heating, cooking, mechanical power, transport and telecommunication services.
Modern energy services enhance the life of the poor in countless ways. Electricity provides the best and most efficient form of lighting, extending the day and providing extra hours to study or work. Household appliances also require it, opening up new possibilities for communication, entertainment, heating etc. It enables water to be pumped for crops, and foods and medicines to be refrigerated. Modern cooking facilities have the potential to significantly reduce the daily exposure of households (particularly women and children) to noxious cooking fumes – helping to avoid premature deaths caused by indoor air pollution. They can also help remove the burden of spending hours every day travelling long distances to gather fuelwood. And modern energy can directly reduce poverty by raising a poor country’s productivity and extending the quality and range of its products – thereby putting more wages into the pockets of the deprived. For instance, mechanical power can benefit agriculture (ploughing, irrigation) and food processing (otherwise, a laborious and time consuming job), textiles and other manufacturing.
Each year, around 3.5 million premature deaths can be attributed to household air pollution resulting from the traditional use of solid fuels, such as fuelwood and charcoal.
The international community has long been aware of the close correlation between income levels and access to modern energy: not surprisingly, countries with a large proportion of the population living on an income of less than $2 per day tend to have low electrification rates and a high proportion of the population relying on the traditional use of biomass for cooking. Despite the importance of these matters, billions of people continue to be without basic modern energy services, lacking reliable access to either electricity or clean cooking facilities. This situation is expected to change only a little by 2030 unless more vigorous action is taken.
Without access to modern energy, it is not possible to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, the eight-point global agenda adopted by the United Nations in 2000 – whether reducing poverty, improving women's and children's health, or broadening the reach of education. The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, has recognised the importance of this issue by including the goal of universal access to modern energy within his Sustainable Energy for All initiative.
Our work on Energy access
Access to Energy 2017
The World Energy Outlook has been publishing annual data and analysis on modern energy access for the poor since 2002
Global Tracking Framework 2017
A multi-agency effort led by the IEA and the World Bank provides an update on how the world has been moving towards the three SE4All objectives
Modern energy for all
Energy is essential for the provision of clean water, sanitation and healthcare, and provides great benefits to development through the provision of reliable and efficient services
Energy Access Database
Database of access to modern energy, based on a comprehensive update of our electricity and traditional use of biomass databases
Methodology
IEA data and projections focus on two elements of energy access: a household having access to electricity and to a relatively clean, safe means of cooking
Financing energy access
Worldwide in 2013, an estimated $13.1 billion in capital investment was directed to improving access to electricity and clean cooking facilities
Recent Reports
Energy Access Outlook: From Poverty to Prosperity
Exploring the close links between energy & development
Global Tracking Framework 2017
Measuring progress towards Sustainable Energy for All
World Energy Outlook 2016
Scenarios and projections to 2040
News
- Energy is at the heart of the sustainable development agenda to 2030
19 March 2018 - IEA launches the Clean Energy Transitions Programme to support clean-energy development
7 November 2017 - Universal energy access by 2030 is now within reach thanks to growing political will and falling costs
19 October 2017
Events & workshops
Jul12
WorkshopIdentifying Technology Innovation Needs and Opportunities Under Mission Innovation Challenge n°2: Off-grid Access to Electricity OECD Conference Centre, 2 rue André Pascal, 75016 Paris, France
Mar27
WorkshopWorld Energy Outlook 2017: High-level Workshop on Energy and DevelopmentParis
May13
WorkshopIEA Workshop on Energy for all: Financing access for the poorIEA, Paris