Adaobi Rhema Oguejiofor
Global average figures have shown that the expansion of renewable energy has surpassed the efforts to provide basic energy access to people living in poor communities and countries.
This was disclosed in a report that was jointly released on Tuesday by five international bodies, including 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).
The report stated that the world is not on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7, which involves ensuring access to clean and affordable energy, as a key to the development of agriculture, business, communications, education, healthcare, and transportation by 2030.
According to the report, the global energy access gap continues, as there are still 675 million people without electricity and 2.3 billion people who rely on harmful cooking fuels. It noted that SDG 7 is to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy, which includes reaching universal access to electricity and clean cooking that will substantially increase the share of renewables in the global energy mix.
The UN projects that this goal, if attained, will have a deep impact on people’s health and well-being. It will also help to protect people from environmental and social risks, such as air pollution, and expand access to primary healthcare services.
The use of renewable electricity in global consumption has grown from 26.3 percent in 2019 to 28.2 percent in 2020, which is the largest single-year increase since the start of tracking the progress for SDGs, according to figures from the latest report.
Fatih Birol, who is the Executive Director of IEA, said that cost-competitive renewable energy has demonstrated remarkable resilience, but the poorest in the world are still largely unable to fully benefit from it.
In his own words, “to realize SDG 7 without compromising climate goals, we must bring about systemic change in the way international corporations work. Multilateral financial institutions must direct financial flows more equitably around the world in order to support the deployment of renewables and related physical infrastructure development.”