IEA Says $36 Billion Per Year To Eradicate Energy Poverty
- 1.2 bln people without power access by 2030, 1.4 bln now
- Universal access to energy would boost oil demand 1 pct
- Number of people relying on biomass stoves to grow by 2030
By Muriel Boselli PARIS, Sept 21 (Reuters) - It would cost $36 billion per year to enable the world's 1 billion energy-starved people to access energy supplies at home by 2030, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday.
The IEA said in an excerpt of its 2010 World Energy Outlook that some 1.2 billion people, equivalent to China's population, would still have no electricity by 2030 if governments made no change to existing policies, down from 1.4 billion currently.
The $36 billion per year only represented 3 percent of global energy investments projected by the agency to 2030.
"This is peanuts compared to other investments which are made," Fatih Birol, chief economist at the IEA, said in an interview.
In Nigeria for instance, Africa's top oil producer, where half the 152 million population has no access to electricity supplies, it would cost the country 0.4 percent of its oil and gas revenues to fix the situation, Birol said.
Achieving universal access to energy supplies would only boost oil demand by less than 1 percent and carbon dioxide emissions by 0.8 percent, Birol said, adding this was because most people who lack access to electricity live in rural areas.
"Since they are not connected to the cities, in most cases decentralised systems such as wind, mini-hydro or solar, will be used," Birol added.
"GOOD STEPS IN INDIA"
The projected number of 1.2 billion people without access to electricity by 2030 was however 100 million people less than in the IEA's 2009 outlook.
"This is mainly due to what happened in India, which made some good steps to reduce the number of people needing access to electricity," Birol added.
"Although electrification will progress over the period to 2030, the need will grow as the population increases," the report said.
Countries with a large proportion of the population living on an income of less than $2 per day tend to have low electrification rates and a high proportion of the population relying on traditional biomass, the IEA said.
The number of people relying on biomass is projected to rise by 100 million to 2.8 billion, which represents over 40 percent of the global population, by 2030.
The IEA said that household air pollution from the use of biomass in inefficient stoves would lead to over 1.5 million premature deaths per year in 2030.
This was greater than estimates for premature deaths from malaria, tuberculosis or aids, it said. (Editing by Sue Thomas)
