Full Title: Reforming Energy Subsidies: Opportunities to Contribute to the Climate Change Agenda
Author(s): United Nations Environment Program
Publisher(s): United Nations Environment Program
Publication Date: August 1, 2008
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Energy is essential to all economic activities and to human well-being. Economies rely on commercial energy to transport goods and people, to heat homes and offices, to power engines and appliances, and to run shops and factories. Energy services help to meet basic human needs such as the production of food, the provision of shelter and access to health services, while contributing to social development by enabling education. Lack of access to reliable and affordable modern energy is holding back economic and social development in many parts of the world today. An estimated 1.6 billion people in the world have no access to electricity, while more than two billion people rely on traditional fuels for cooking and heating. Raising their living standards and productivity depends on improving their access to modern energy services.