To achieve universal energy access by 2030, a new energy narrative is needed. One which recognizes: the reality of energy poverty on the ground; the full range of services that poor people want, need, and have a right to; and that encourages the development of healthier energy ecosystems that value all technologies, finance and actors required to bring energy to all people. In line with this the new Poor people’s energy outlook offers a framework for action. 
The report also highlights two important hurdles:

1. To bring modern energy services to the 1.3 billion people who currently live without access by 2030,1 more decentralized, off-grid energy provision will be required than conventional, grid-based energy. This has been evidenced since 2011 (IEA, 2011) but largely ignored by policymakers and the energy community thus far.

2. At the national level, most governments still view access as a ‘have’ / ‘have not’ dichotomy, rather than the multi-tiered, multi-faceted group of services and supplies that meaningful access would represent: i.e. household, community and productive services. Government energy and investment incentive policies built around such simplistic definitions of access will not spur the type of national-level change required to alleviate energy poverty.

Total Energy Access
The Poor people’s energy outlook 2014 also revisits a multidimensional Total Energy Access (TEA) approach that defines ‘access’ as when the full range of energy supplies and services required to support human social and economic development are available to households, enterprises and community service providers. The TEA approach to defining and measuring access illustrates the depth and complexity of achieving substantive and transformational access. The report further outlines the Energy Access Ecosystem Index that analyses the policy, capacity, and finance spaces which contribute to progress on energy poverty at the national level.

Download the full report here.

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