Abstract
The issue of energy poverty or the lack of access to modern energy has received increasing attention in the development literature, including specific reference in the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Measures based on just energy expenditures (‘energy burden’) are shown to be rather inadequate when identifying energy-poor households. This paper uses an access-adjusted energy poverty measure that allows for varying energy efficiencies and access to different fuel types used by sampled households from a 2008/9 Department of Energy survey. Taking three pre-assigned thresholds of household energy use among LSM1-LSM3 households, all the South African provinces are mapped showing spatial incidences of energy poverty for electrified households. It is proposed that these access-adjusted indicators are methodologically more robust and informative for policy than conventional, purely expenditure-based indicators.
Highlights
The UN Millennium Development Goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2015 will not be met unless substantial progress is made on improving access to energy
This will enable researchers to calculate more accurately the quantity of energy used, and to identify more precisely the degree of energy poverty experienced by households
It is clear that conventional energy burden calculations showing energy poverty by expenditure, as reported in the Department of Energy (2009) study, are very different to the access-adjusted -based indicators of energy poverty reported in this study
Summary
The UN Millennium Development Goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2015 will not be met unless substantial progress is made on improving access to energy. Energy poverty or the lack of access to modern energy services is a serious obstacle to economic and social development globally and must be overcome if the eight UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted in 2000 to fight poverty are to be achieved. The World Bank estimates that in 2005 about 1.4 billion people were living in extreme poverty, i.e., below US$1.25 a day, which equates to a quarter of the developing world’s population. In an effort to address this omission, the recently established UN Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change (AGECC) and the 2012 International Year for Sustainable Energy For All call on the United Nations system and its member states to commit themselves to two ambitious but achievable complementary goals: namely, ensure universal access to modern energy services by 2030; and reduce global energy intensity by 40% by 2030. It is acknowledged that enormous welfare benefits follow once people have access to light, power, heat, irrigation and cleaner air (Sustainable Energy For All, 2012), yet it is estimated by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and AGECC that between $35bn to $40bn will need to be spent per annum to achieve the 2030 goal (Practical Action, 2012)
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