By Doug Barnes
The International Energy Association (IEA) has published a very nice special paper with the title Energy Poverty: How to Make Energy Access Universal. This report makes a substantial contribution to the work on energy poverty and provides the updated figures on electricity access and the use of fuels for cooking. The purpose of the report is to raise the issue of energy poverty to a higher level of international visibility. This is quite a welcome tact by an energy agency that for many years has specialized in addressing issues of modern energy.
The International Energy Association (IEA) has published a very nice special paper with the title Energy Poverty: How to Make Energy Access Universal. This report makes a substantial contribution to the work on energy poverty and provides the updated figures on electricity access and the use of fuels for cooking. The purpose of the report is to raise the issue of energy poverty to a higher level of international visibility. This is quite a welcome tact by an energy agency that for many years has specialized in addressing issues of modern energy.
I really like several things about this new report. For one, the energy access and cooking fuel issues are well documented and nicely presented in tables and figures. They also have made this publication free as supplement to the World Energy Outlook. However, if you want the more country specific details you must purchase World Energy Outlook. Finally, IEA has now added cooking fuels to the other types of energy they track to compliment their emphasis on electricity and other modern fuels. This will raise cooking fuels to a higher level of public awareness and tracking their use is a very good idea for policy makers in the field of energy.
The report also has some very high figures for the investment costs necessary to reach universal modern energy access by 2030. At first glance, I thought these figures were too high, so I decided to “look behind” the figures. I can tell you that that even for someone as seasoned as me this was not an easy task.
