This joint annual report by IRENA from the custodian agencies of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 on energy, serves to guide international co-operation and policy-making to achieve universal, sustainable energy access by 2030.
The latest available data and selected energy scenarios reveal that at today’s rate of progress, the world is not on track to achieve any of the targets under SDG 7. This is particularly true of the most vulnerable countries and those that were already lagging. Although the number of people without access to electricity fell from 1.2 billion globally in 2010 to 759 million in 2019, the unfortunate fact is that gains in energy access are being reversed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of people lacking access to electricity is set to increase in 2020, making basic electricity services unaffordable for up to 30 million people who had previously enjoyed access. The number of people with access to clean cooking solutions dropped from 3 billion in 2010 to 2.6 billion in 2019. Unless efforts are stepped up significantly, an estimated 660 million people would remain without access to electricity in 2030 and 2.4 billion people will be left with no access to clean cooking.
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