Energy Access, Climate and Development
The transition to a climate-constrained world is occurring at a time when nearly half of the world’s population lacks reliable access to modern energy services. Consequently, the energy transition and climate vulnerability are much more closely connected than current analysis suggests, as the world’s poor struggle over a dwindling resource base that is being further degraded by the impacts of climate change. There is an urgent need not only to greatly scale up support for energy access but also to link this support more closely to the climate agenda, to the revitalization of rural areas, and to better management of the urban and peri-urban development that has dominated the changing energy landscape of recent decades. This brief exposition provides an overview of the key issues that link the energy access challenge with the climate and development agenda.
