Green Innovations: Reducing Energy Poverty and Inequitable Access

Abstract

Access to basic services is a universal human right, and access to a decent ‘quality’ of water, energy and food are key to sustainable human development. With them, people’s capabilities, opportunities and basic freedoms can expand exponentially. This interconnectedness between the quantity and quality of resources is expressed in the definition of energy access by the UN Secretary General in his declaration of 2012 as the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All and the launch of the Sustainable Energy for All (SEE4ALL) initiative. Defined as “the physical availability of modern energy services, including electricity and improved end-use devices such as cookstoves, to meet basic human needs at affordable price” (Sustainable Energy for All, 2012), ‘access’ thus relates to more than availability; it also captures factors such as affordability and relevance. For poor people, this implies that the price of modern energy should be, to some extent, in line with their ability to pay and comparable to the cost and effort of accessing traditional fuels. (…)