NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, May 30, 2013

In the developed world, the flick of a switch gives us unlimited electricity to light our homes, chill our food and power our TVs and laptops, while it’s all too easy to unwrap a ready meal and fling it into the oven or microwave on autopilot.

Millions don’t have that luxury. In fact, nearly a third of the world’s population cook on dirty, polluting stoves that harm the environment and people’s health. One and a half billion people – that’s more than the population of China – don’t have electricity. They light their homes with kerosene lamps; potentially lethal not just because of the fire risk, but from the toxic fumes they give off.

The energy access gap is greatest in Africa, where more than half of the population – some 590 million people – live off the grid. Most people in rural areas cook on open fires, with resulting indoor air pollution killing hundreds of thousands of women and children every year.