More than 666 million people around the world still lack access to electricity.

 

A UN report released Wednesday showed that despite nearly 92 percent of the world's population having access to electricity, more than 666 million people still lack it.

The report, published by the World Health Organization and its partners, emphasized that while basic access to energy has increased since 2022, the current pace is insufficient to achieve universal access by 2030, one of the Sustainable Development Goals.

It highlighted that, with regional disparities persisting, some 1.5 billion people living in rural areas still lack access to clean cooking, while more than two billion rely on polluting and hazardous fuels, such as firewood and charcoal, for their cooking needs.

Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, said, "Despite progress in some parts of the world, expanding access to electricity and clean cooking remains disappointingly slow, particularly in Africa, where 85 percent of the world's population without access to electricity resides in sub-Saharan Africa."

The report identified the lack of adequate and affordable financing as a major cause of regional disparities and slow progress. "While international public financial flows to developing countries to support clean energy have increased since 2022, developing countries received significantly lower flows in 2023 than in 2016."

The report called for enhanced international cooperation between the public and private sectors to expand financial support to developing countries, particularly in Africa.