Worldwide Electricity by 2030

Sometimes a statistic really does what it is meant to do and hits a reader with the reality behind its number. Twenty percent of the world’s population has no access to electricity, and 95% of those live in sub-Saharan Africa. Those of us who live in the West depend on electricity for any number of what to us are necessities. We can comprehend that a few in remote areas would have electricity, but 20% or one in five speaks of a wide discrepancy. That is why UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon attending a meeting on how to improve the availability of energy, called for universal access to be implemented by 2030. Besides the obvious benefit of having available energy, Mr. Ban sees it as a means of revitalizing global economy. The lack of energy means that 2.7 billon people are without clean cooking facilities, not to speak of the fact that as a result of this lack 1.5 million people die each year from respiratory diseases. Let’s hope government and the private sector get together as Ban suggests and remedy what ought not to be given the possibilities of today’s world.