Energy Poverty Is Much Worse for the Poor Than Climate Change

Energy Poverty Is Much Worse for the Poor Than Climate Change - Reason.com
"Some 1.2 billion people do not have access to electricity, according to the International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook 2016 report.
About 2.7 billion still cook and heat their dwellings with wood, crop residues, and dung. 
In its main scenario for the trajectory of global energy consumption, the IEA projects that in 2040, half a billion people will still lack access to electricity and 1.8 billion will still be cooking and heating by burning biomass.
The agency defines the initial threshold for modern energy access as 250 kilowatt-hours (kwh) for rural and 500 kwh for urban households per year.
How much is that?
"In rural areas, this level of consumption could, for example, provide for the use of a floor fan, a mobile telephone and two compact fluorescent light bulbs for about five hours per day," the IEA explains.
For comparison, in 2015 the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. household was 10,812 kwh—43 times the IEA's energy access threshold for rural households..."