Affordable and Clean Energy 

“Energy is the dominant contributor to climate change, accounting for around 60 per cent of total global greenhouse gas emissions”.

This is word shared from the United Nations, not mine necessarily

I guess the figure stood at that by the time this conclusion was come up to but I guess the number is much much higher now

Due to our very interesting way of living world-over

When you take a moment to think about it, does it resonate with you?

Or is it too much garbage to process?

I got a question for you or a couple of them….

1. Is the energy that you use cheap or dear?
2. How reliable is that form of energy?
3. Can this form or forms of energy be sustained for a while or are you thinking about something else for the future?

Well, as you think about those, there is a huge goal for ensuring we all have affordable and clean energy; to ensure access to afford­able, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for us all.

This is because our everyday lives depend on reliable and afford­able energy services to function smoothly and to develop fairly.

You ought to appreciate that a well-established system of energy supports all sectors of life and growth: from busi­nesses, medicine and education to agriculture, infrastructure, communica­tions and high-technology. Short of that, the lack of access to supplies of energy and systems of transformation is a constant challenge to human and economic development.

“I have access to electricity. Why should I care about this goal?”

For many years now, fossil fuels such as coal, oil or gas have been the major sources of electricity produced all over the world, but burning carbon fuels produces large amounts of greenhouse gases which cause our climate to change and have harmful impacts on people’s well-being and the environment. This affects everyone, not just a few!!!

I mean, look around today and share with me what you see. Moreover, the use of electricity all over the world is rising rap­idly. Basically in a nutshell, without a stable electricity supply, countries will not be able to power their economies.

Over 1.2 billion peo­ple – 1 in 5 people of the whole world’s popula­tion – do not have access to electricity! The major­ity are concentrated in about a dozen countries in Africa and Asia. For you that have access to electricity, I suggest you put to proper use the privilege you have before you, huh!

Without electricity, women and girls have to spend hours fetching water, clinics cannot store vaccines for children, many schoolchildren can­not do homework at night, and people cannot run competitive businesses.

Another 2.8 billion people rely on wood, charcoal, dung and coal for cooking and heating, which results in over four million pre­mature deaths a year due to indoor air pollution.

Now, what would it cost to switch to more sustainable forms of energy?

We all need to tri­ple our investment in sustainable energy infra­structure per year, from around $450 billion now to $1.25 trillion by 2030!

$ signs do look good on paper but weigh us down a lot more, right?

Regions in the world with the lowest amounts of energy produced, that is, sub – Saharan Africa and South Asia – need our help to improve access to energy. That includes pushing harder to find clean, effi­cient, and affordable alternatives to health-dam­aging cook stoves.

In order to do all that, countries can speed up the transition to an affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy system by investing in renewable energy resources, prior­itizing energy efficient practices, and adopting clean energy technolo­gies and infrastructure.

Businesses can maintain and protect ecosystems to be able to use and fur­ther develop hydropower sources of electricity and bioenergy, and commit to sourcing 100% of oper­ational electricity needs from renewable sources.

Employers can reduce the internal demand for trans­port by prioritizing telecom­munications and incentivize less energy intensive modes such as train travel over automobile or motor vehicle and air travel.

Investors can invest more in sustainable energy services, bringing new technologies to the market quickly from a diverse supplier base.

As an individual, you can do the smallest of saving electricity by plugging appliances into a power strip and turning them off com­pletely when not in use, including your computer. You can also bike, walk or take public transport to reduce carbon emissions.

Let’s do this!