The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, has welcomed a new European Union initiative aimed at assisting developing countries to gain better access to sustainable energy. The European Commission, the EU executive body, aims to support the provision of sustainable energy services to 500million people in poorer countries by 2030.
President of EU, Jose Manuel Barroso, announced that the initiative would also create a technical assistance facility worth 50million, drawn from EU experts to develop technical expertise in developing countries. The initiative will also focus on refining, expanding and improving on energy related innovative financial instruments and risk guarantee schemes in developing countries to unlock greater private investment.
According to the Secretary General, ‘Sustainable Energy For All’ is designed to fast track global action in support of three inter-linked and compliment objectives to be achieved by 2030 to double the rate of global improvement of energy efficiency, to ensure universal access to modern energy service and double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.
The International Energy Agency estimates that 1.3billion people – one in five persons globally, lack electricity for domestic and commercial consumption. About 40 per cent of World’s populations rely on wood, charcoal, coal or animal waste to cook food, resulting to toxic smoke that causes lung diseases and death.