Summary:
Providing universal, reliable, affordable and sustainable energy access offers the opportunity to empower
the people in Africa to decide the course of their lives through education, health and economic development.
Sustainable energy lies at the heart of both the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UN Paris
Agreement on Climate Change. Advancing to achieve SDG 7 can spur progress across almost all other SDGs-
including for poverty eradication, gender equality, climate change, food security, health, education, sustainable
cities and communities, clean water and sanitation, environment, jobs, innovation, transport, and displaced
people.
Africa is not on track to provide universal electricity access-to meet SDG 7-in the coming decade. Almost
600 million people will still lack access to electricity by 2030 in the absence of major changes (representing
90% of the total estimated population without access globally).1 Sub-Saharan Africa faces a set of challenges
in the next decades, especially related to accelerating population growth,2 poverty eradication, climate change
and environmental degradation. Moreover, the continent faces an urgent social, economic and environmental
crisis in the lack of access to clean cooking. The clean cooking sector remains stunted, with 900 million
people (over 80% of the population) lacking access to clean cooking solutions, including 70% in urban areas.3
This causes nearly half a million premature deaths annually, especially among women and children. Fossil fuels
and unsustainable biomass also cause major environmental and climate damage, with an annual deforestation
rate of three percent annually, leading to total forest depletion in various zones in sub-Saharan Africa. Meanwhile,
Africa has low adaptive capacities and is highly vulnerable to climate change. The negative consequences
are impacting across all economic sectors. [...]
Publication date: 01-11-2019
IIT-19-142I
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