A new report shows that globally, 675 million people still have no access to electricity, and 2.3 billion use polluting fuels to cook. 

New stats show the world is not on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 for energy by 2030.

This year marks the halfway point for achieving SDGs by 2030. SDG 7 is to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy. 

The goal includes reaching universal access to electricity and clean cooking, doubling historic levels of efficiency improvements, and substantially increasing the share of renewables in the global energy mix. 

Attaining this goal will have a deep impact on people’s health and well-being, helping to protect them from environmental and social risks such as air pollution, and expanding access to primary health care and services.

A new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO), says that while there has been some progress on specific elements of the SDG 7 agenda - for example, the increased rate of using renewables in the power sector - progress is insufficient to reach the targets set forth in the SDGs.

The report shows that in 2010, 84 per cent of the world’s population had access to electricity. This increased to 91 per cent in 2021, meaning more than a billion people gained access over that period. 

However, the growth pace of access slowed in 2019-2021 compared to previous years. 

Rural electrification efforts contributed to this progress, but a large gap within urban areas remains.

In 2021, 567 million people in sub-Saharan Africa did not have access to electricity, accounting for more than 80 per cent of the global population without access. The access deficit in the region stayed almost the same as in 2010.

The world remains off track to achieve universal access to clean cooking by 2030. Up to 2.3 billion people still use polluting fuels and technologies for cooking, largely in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. 

The use of traditional biomass also means households spend up to 40 hours a week gathering firewood and cooking, which prohibits women from pursuing employment or participating in local decision-making bodies and children from going to school.

According to the 2019 WHO estimates, 3.2 million premature deaths each year were attributable to household air pollution created by using polluting fuels and technologies for cooking.

Renewable electricity use in global consumption has grown from 26.3 per cent in 2019 to 28.2 per cent in 2020, the largest single-year increase since the start of tracking progress for the SDGs.

Efforts to increase renewables’ share in heating and transport, which represent more than three quarters of global energy consumption, remain off target to achieve 1.5℃ climate objectives.