Urgent need for a new initiative to ensure universal energy access by 2030: Researchers

New Delhi : A team of global researchers and practitioners on Monday proposed the creation of a new mission energy access programme to accelerate efforts to ensure universal energy access by 2030.

In a paper titled ‘Mission Energy Access for a just and sustainable future for all’ published in the journal Nature Energy, the authors noted that despite efforts to enhance energy access, there were about 675 million people worldwide who had no access to electricity and about 2.3 billion people who had no access to clean cooking facilities in 2021.

Furthermore, in the absence of additional efforts and measures, as many as 660 million people (mostly in the least-developed countries and in sub-Saharan Africa) will remain without access to electricity, and 1.9 billion people will still be dependent on polluting fuels and technologies (mostly biomass used in traditional cookstoves) for cooking in 2030.

“A mission-mode approach to enhancing energy access is needed urgently, given the persistent gap between the aspiration to ensure universal energy access by 2030 and the efforts to deliver on this goal,” said professor Ambuj Sagar, School of Public Policy, IIT Delhi.

By greatly enhancing the development of innovative and affordable solutions for enabling access to clean and modern energy and its productive uses and the acceleration of large-scale deployment of these solutions, “such a mission would help deliver a triple dividend of increasing energy access, enhancing social and economic benefits, and advancing climate goals”, Sagar added.

The author team included Dr Ajay Mathur, International Solar Alliance, Gurugram; Dr Fatih Birol, International Energy Agency, Paris; Dr. Yacob Mulugetta, University College London, London; Dr. Damilola Ogunbiyi, Sustainable Energy for All, Vienna, Austria; Dr. Youba Sokona, University College London; and Achim Steiner, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).