Energy is a basic for human development. Little wonder Goal
7 of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) targets the provision of
reliable, affordable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. The
targets within this goal are massive considering that billions of people
worldwide living without access to modern, affordable and reliable energy
services.
According to the 2013 World Energy Outlook report, it was estimated that
1.2 billion people – 17% of the global population – did not have access to
electricity and more than 2.7 billion people – 38% of the world’s population –
relied on the traditional use of fuel wood for cooking, mostly using inefficient
stoves in poorly ventilated spaces.
In scaling household energy poverty in Nigeria, it is important to mention
the 2012 energy development index (EDI) report that ranked Nigeria 66th of the
80 countries evaluated with an EDI of 0.11. This was lower than other African
countries like Egypt 0.68 (ranked 10th) and Ghana 0.22 (ranked 50th) but higher
than Burkina Faso 0.07 (ranked 75th) and Liberia 0.05 (ranked 79th). More
worrying is a 2014 report by Augusto & Co which adjudged Nigeria as having
the lowest per capita electricity consumption in Africa.
Nigeria’s current energy profile does not represent a country that is
pushing for economic diversification; considering that most economic and
household activities are less profitable and/or impeded without adequate,
reliable and competitively priced modern electricity. All in the 21st century
when many societies take modern energy services for granted.
In the words of Mary Robinson, of the Mary Robinson Foundation Climate
Justice, ‘this lack of access to energy is an intolerable failure of human
solidarity.’
People who lack access to affordable and modern energy services are more
often thantrapped in the vicious cycle of deprivation, lower income and limited
access to improving their living conditions; giving rise to the concept
of energy poverty which is a source and consequence of poverty.
But beyond limiting income generation and enshrining poverty, lack of
access to clean energy for cooking disproportionately affects the health of
women and girls who are primary household energy manager and contributes to
global deforestation and climate change.
As an existential and globally
accepted concept, Energy Poverty is commonly defined as the lack of access to
modern energy services include electricity and clean cooking facilities. It
refers to the situation where the well-being of a significant portion of the
population is negatively affected by low consumption of energy as a result of
low purchasing power, use of dirty or polluting fuel and/or excessive amount of
time spent on collecting the fuel to meet needs.
Thus energy poverty is used to express the lack of access to modern energy
facilities on the one hand and portion of household income spent on providing
modern energy services on the other.
In developed nations, households that spend more than 10% of total
household income are classified as energy poor. The argument is that when
energy bills exceed 10% of income, it begins to impact on the general welfare
of the household. Consequently, households intentionally deprive themselves of
other basic goods and services for energy supply.
In contrast, such a measurement for energy poverty may not fully define
the scale of energy poverty in Nigeria as with many other developing countries.
Energy poverty in Nigeria is
better scaled in terms of lack of access to modern energy services than the
inability of households to spend less than 10% of household income for adequate
supply of modern energy services.
Scaling energy poverty in Nigeria comes in the form of erratic power
supply; total darkness for 45% of the people; use of kerosene lantern for
lighting; cooking with inefficient wood stoves; traveling miles on foot to
fetch fuel wood; low electricity consumption per capita and in the powering of
homes with noisy, air polluting generator majority of the time.
Such poor energy access has direct and damning consequences on
Nigeria’s achievement of the targets set in SDG 1 ‘no poverty’;SDG 3 ‘good
health and well-being’; SDG 7 ‘affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern
energy’; SDG 9 ‘industry, innovation and infrastructure’;SDG 12 ‘sustainable
consumption and production’ and SDG 13 ‘climate action.’ In fact, there is an
energy cost to meeting all 17 SDGs target.
With Nigeria being a signatory to the global goals for sustainable
development (which aims to foster PROSPERITY for all PEOPLE in a safe PLANET), ending
energy poverty is not only necessary but mandatory. With success depending on
our ability to optimise local capacities, harness indigenous resources, and
deploying the best available technologies from around the world.
And we all have our roles to play in ending energy poverty for the good of
present and future generations.
Source: Business Day
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