Climate Action 2011-2012

Climate Policy, Governance & Finance
sustainable energy for all
© UNEP Riscoe Centre
Many women have to walk miles each day to find suitable wood. Clean energy
can improve their health and mean they have more time to focus on other needs.
Sustainable Energy for All:
access challenge
70 climateactionprogramme.org
By John Christensen, Director of the UNEP Risoe
Centre, Morgan Bazillian, Special Advisor to the
Director-General of the UN Industrial Development
Organization (UNIDO) and Mark Radka, Head of the
UNEP Energy Branch
An estimated 2.7 billion people still rely on traditional
solid fuels for most of their energy needs. Of these some
1.4 billion are completely without access to electricity. An
enhanced understanding of the importance of energy for
poverty eradication and achievement of the Millennium
Development Goals has gradually emerged over the
last decade. Reflecting this, the United Nations General
Assembly has designated 2012 as the ‘International Year of
Sustainable Energy for All’. The COP17 and the Rio+20
processes offer unique opportunities to pave the way for
ambitious international action on sustainable energy for all.
In the developed world energy is almost universally
available, accessible, and of high quality – light at the flick
of a switch, heat for cooking or comfort at the push of a
button, power and mechanical energy for business at any
time of day or night. In many parts of the developing world
the picture is very different – and very bleak. Of the 2.7
billion relying on traditional solid fuels – wood, charcoal
and dung – for most of their energy needs, many have only
limited or no access to cleaner and more modern fuels such
as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and some 1.4 billion are
completely without access to electricity. For many who do
have access, this means only poor quality or intermittent
service. The pervasive lack of modern energy stifles incomegenerating
activities and hampers the provision of basic
services such as healthcare and education. Smoke from
polluting and inefficient cooking, lighting, and heating
devices kills nearly two million women and young children
prematurely every year and causes a range of chronic
illnesses and other health impacts. In addition, black carbon
emissions from these devices worsen global climate change.
Unless dedicated international
and national efforts are made,
the situation in 2030 will
be almost unchanged.
Good news and bad news
Energy for sustainable development has been on the global
political agenda since the Rio Summit in 1992. Significant
results have been achieved in the last two decades during