ABSTRACT
About two billion people – 40 percent of humanity – lack access to modern energy services such as electric lighting, modern biomass, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) (IEA 2011, 52), using instead kerosene (paraffin)1 for lighting and traditional biomass (firewood, charcoal, and dung) or coal for cooking and heating. This exacerbates, and, arguably, causes poverty, since those without such services are deprived of opportunities. These people – the Energy Poor – must perform activities such as food processing manually. Irrigation is limited to hand watering with buckets, limiting the area of land that can be irrigated. Capacity to study and socialize is limited due to poor and expensive lighting, while access to electronic media is limited due to the high costs of batteries. Collecting firewood takes up time that could be used for other productive activities and exposes collectors to hazards, including snake bites, injuries, assaults, and chronic musculoskeletal injuries (Echarri and Forriol 2005; Matinga 2010; Parikh 2011). Firewood collection is metabolic energy-intensive, which may have adverse health effects where caloric intake is limited. Cooking with traditional fuels exposes cooks to particulate matter, carbon monoxide, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and other polluting compounds. Estimates show that household air pollution – largely from cooking – was responsible for 4.3 million deaths, representing 7.7 percent of global mortality (WHO 2014, 17).
