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 fuelwood 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 than trapped
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 wellbeing 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 fuelwood; 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 wellbeing’; 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 PROPERSITY 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.
This article was first published on Nigeria Businessday Newspaper of 10th April, 2017
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