Energy For All

Approximately 1 billion people, 14% of the Planet’s population still have no access to electricity. 600 million in sub-Saharan Africa totalling 57% of the population and 15 countries in that region have access rates below 25%.  Globally we are some way off hitting the targets set out in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7.1 to ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services by 2030.

In rural, isolated communities, many people simply have no light after sunset, which makes being productive at night—such as working and learning–extremely difficult.  The World Bank reports that the lack of access to electricity represents a fundamental barrier to progress for a sizeable proportion of the world’s population and has impacts on a wide range of development indicators, including health, education, food security, gender equality, livelihoods, and poverty reduction.

Many homes are forced to use kerosene lamps for lighting. Millions of children each year get severely burned by kerosene due to the tipping of the lamps or even more worrying the accidental ingestion of kerosene, which is the leading cause of child poisoning in Africa. Furthermore, there are issues with the quality of light being produced. However, one of the biggest issues with kerosene is the associated cost.  On average, it is three to four times more expensive than electrical light. This economic cost can see families spending 10-15% of their income buying fuel. This locks them into a cycle of poverty. For many already deprived families, they often face the difficult choice between buying fuel for the home so their children can do their homework or ration it to provide light for cooking and farming. 

With the world becoming increasingly  aware of the adverse effects of climate change, it goes without saying that helping developing countries and communities move towards more sustainable greener energy sources is imperative. On average a kerosene lamp emits 340kg of CO₂ emissions. Due to the unclean burning of the fuel,  kerosene emits black carbon, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide which all have detrimental consequences on the respiratory health of the families and wider environment. According to the World Bank, regular exposure to kerosene fumes can be likened to smoking two packs of cigarettes daily. You are also ten times as likely to be diagnosed with tuberculosis if you use kerosene lighting. Cataracts are twice as common in people who use kerosene lighting. 

One further unfortunate by-product of using kerosene is women are disproportionately more at risk of inhaling low-quality kerosene smoke due to their role in the family consisting primarily of  preparing food. Kerosene smoke is now one of the main killers of women in the developing world.