More than 1 billion or near one seventh of the world population, cannot access electricity, World Bank said in a report on Monday, although the electrification rate increased.
'The number of people without access to electricity declined from 1.2 billion to 1.1 billion, a rate of progress much faster than the 1990-2010 period,' the report read, which investigated the two-year period between 2010 and 2012.
Almost 222 million people reached electricity supply during the period, mostly in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, which increased the electrification rate from 83 percent to 85.
“We are heading in the right direction to end energy poverty,” said Anita Marangoly George, Senior Director of the World Bank’s Energy and Extractives Global Practice. “But we are still far from the finish line,' she added.
The bank called for tripling energy investments from the current $400 billion up to $1.25 trillion to make electricity accessible globally in 2030.
Also, renewable energy sources raised by 4 percent on average each year in the same period reaching 8.8 percent of share in total energy sources, according to the findings in the report, conducted by the World Bank's Sustainable Energy for All initiative.
By Furkan Naci Top
Anadolu Agency
furkan.top@aa.com.tr