Undesirable Progress
Progress in every area of sustainable
energy falls short of what is needed to achieve energy access for all and to
meet targets for renewable energy and energy efficiency.
- Globally, 85.3 per cent of the population
had access to electricity in 2014, an increase of only 0.3 percentage points
since 2012. That
means that 1.06 billion people, predominantly rural dwellers, still function
without electricity. Half of those people live in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Access to clean fuels and technologies
for cooking climbed to 57.4 per cent in 2014, up slightly from 56.5 per cent in
2012. More
than 3 billion people, the majority of them in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, are
still cooking without clean fuels and more efficient technologies.
- The share of renewable energy in final
energy consumption grew modestly from 2012 to 2014, from 17.9 per cent to 18.3
per cent. Most
of the increase was from renewable electricity from water, solar and wind
power. Solar and wind power still make up a relatively minor share of energy
consumption, despite their rapid growth in recent years. The challenge is to
increase the share of renewable energy in the heat and transport sectors, which
together account for 80 per cent of global energy consumption.
- From 2012 to 2014, three quarters of the
world’s 20 largest energy-consuming countries had reduced their energy
intensity — the
ratio of energy used per unit of GDP. The reduction was driven mainly by
greater efficiencies in the industry and transport sectors. However, that
progress is still not sufficient to meet the target of doubling the global rate
of improvement in energy efficiency.
Click https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/files/report/2017/secretary-general-sdg-report-2017--EN.pdf link to open resource.