Household Energy in developing countries: a burning issue

A major public health issue for the world’s poorest The global debate on climate change and energy security sometimes obscures an energy crisis that is just as serious in its health and environmental impacts—namely, that more than 3 billion people (half of the worlds’ population) have little or no access to modern energy services. The energy access problem is particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia where rural and peri-urban populations often rely exclusively on traditional biomass (wood, dung and/or agricultural residues) for their energy needs (see Figure 3).