UN Report Flags Drop in Access to Energy, a First
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A recently published United Nations (UN) report has warned of a widening global energy gap that is leaving hundreds of millions around the world with no access to electricity. The SDG 7 report notes that 685 million did not have electricity access in 2022, up from 675 million in 2021, making it the first time in more than a decade that access to electricity fell.
According to the Energy Progress Report 2024, the increase in the number of people without access to electricity was due to a number of factors. Those factors includedpopulation growth outpacing the rate of new connections, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as inflation, a worldwide energy crisis, rising geopolitical tensions and worsening debt issues in several low-income countries (LICs).
Although the energy space has recovered from the high prices seen after Russia invaded Ukraine and later cut natural gas exports to Europe, the crisis still hasn’t been fully averted. Inflation coupled with debt distress woes in LCIs means nations that need to invest in building new electricity connections often don’t have the capital needed to fund these projects. The result is a rise in the number of people without access to electricity, something that hasn’t happened in more than 10 years.
The Energy Progress Report 2024 found that the number of people without access to clean-cooking technologies and fuels remained steady at 2.1 billion with health, equality and gender implications, such as more than three million premature deaths annually. With most electric grid-related investments going to developed economies, the nations that need grid investments the most are starved of development capital.
The report noted that current efforts to increase access to clean cooking and electricity aren’t enough to achieve universal access by the end of the decade. At the current rate of progress and under current policies, the report noted, 660 million people globally will have no energy access by 2030, and 1.8 billion will lack clean fuel and technology access by the same year.
On a positive note, the UN report also mentioned certain trends in the rollout of green-energy solutions that could help fill these energy gaps, particularly in the rural areas where electricity connections tend to be the most sparse. Furthermore, clean electricity consumption saw more than a 6% year-on-year increase in 2021, renewables achieved a 28.2% share in the world’s total electricity consumption and energy intensity improvement rates went up to 0.8% in 2021.
Global installed capacity for green-energy generation reached 424 watts per capita the following year amid a 25% year-on-year surge in clean-energy investments in developing nations that ultimately reached $15.4 billion.
The growing uptake of clean energies around the world is a positive indicator that the different companies that focus on developing renewable energy technologies and systems, such as Correlate Energy Corp. (OTCQB: CIPI), stand to reap big in the coming years and decades as green-energy uptake becomes widespread.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Correlate Energy Corp. (OTCQB: CIPI) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/CIPI
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