One Goal, Two Paths: Achieving Universal Access to Modern Energy in East Asia and Pacific

Description

This flagship report of the East Asia and the Pacific Region of the World Bank outlines an ambitious course of action to eradicate energy poverty in the Region by 2030. Despite its impressive economic growth, over 1 billion people in the EAP Region still lack the most basic access to electricity and modern cooking solutions. With every second household in the Region depending on solid fuels for cooking, indoor air pollution is a major health risk factor, particularly for women and children. This flagship report urges the governments of EAP countries to work simultaneously on two paths. The first path is to achieve universal electricity access by accelerating both grid and off-grid programs while employing appropriate policies and innovative technical solutions to reduce costs, improve reliability, and provide timely service to all EAP households. The second path calls for a major push to increase access to clean cooking fuels (natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, and biogas) and to advanced cooking stoves, particularly for biomass in poor rural areas. Both of these paths are affordable. The combined investments required for universal access to modern energy in the EAP Region are estimated at US$78 billion over the next 2 decades. This amount is US$32 billion more than the amount required to maintain the “business-as-usual” scenario over the same period. Although the annual incremental investment will be a small fraction of the Regional GDP, most EAP countries will require significant support from donors and multilateral institutions to reach the goal of universal access to modern energy by 2030.