A staggering 733 million people still have no access to electricity, although this represents a decline from 1.2 billion people, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

At the current rate of progress, 670 million people will remain without electricity by 2030, being 10 million more people more than projected in the previous year. And this slowdown in progress to universal access is primarily due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the IEA noted.

The share of the world’s population with access to electricity rose from 83 per cent in 2010 to 91 per cent in 2020, increasing the number of people with access by 1.3 billion globally and 2.4 billion people still cook using fuels detrimental to their health and the environment.

According to the newest edition of the ‘Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report’, the impacts of the pandemic, including lockdowns, disruptions to global supply chains. Other contributory factors including the diversion of fiscal resources to keep and fuel prices affordable, have affected the pace of progress toward the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG7).

The improvements towards this end have been impeded especially in “the most vulnerable countries” and those “already lagging in energy access”. The figures show that nearly 90 million people in Asia and Africa who had previously gained access to electricity can no longer afford to pay for their basic energy needs.

While the impacts of the Covid-19 crisis on energy are glaring, these have been compounded in the last few months by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has led to uncertainty in global oil and gas markets and has sent energy prices soaring.

Among developing economies, Africa remains the least electrified region in the world with 568 million people (nearly 80% of the total people) without electricity access. Sub-Saharan Africa alone has its share of the global population without electricity jumping to 77 per cent in 2020 from 71 per cent in 2018.

While 70 million people globally gained access to clean cooking fuels and technologies, this progress was not enough to keep pace with population growth, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Renewable Energy Grows During Pandemic

The report finds that despite continued disruptions in economic activity and supply chains, renewable energy was the only energy source to grow through the pandemic.

However, the positive global and regional trends in renewable energy have left behind many countries most in need of electricity. This was aggravated by a decrease in international financial flows for the second year in a row, falling to US$ 10.9 billion in 2019.

SDG 7 targets also cover energy efficiency. From 2010 to 2019, global annual improvements in energy intensity averaged around 1.9%. This is well below the levels needed to meet SDG 7’s targets and to make up for lost ground, the average rate of improvement would have to jump to 3.2%.

In September 2021, the United Nations High-Level Dialogue on Energy brought together governments and stakeholders to accelerate action to achieve a sustainable energy future that leaves no one behind.

The IEA stated that launch of this report by the SDG 7 custodian agencies and other development and energy agencies are “urging the international community and policymakers to safeguard gains toward SDG 7; to remain committed to continued action towards affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all; and to maintain a strategic focus on countries needing the most support”.

According to the IEA, meeting the 2030 target requires increasing the number of new connections to 100 million a year. At current rates of progress, the world will reach only 92 per cent electrification by 2030, the IEA noted.