New Report: Progress on Basic Energy Access
Reverses for First Time in a Decade

The global energy access gap has worsened as population growth has outpaced new connections, leaving 685 million people living without electricity access in 2022, according to the 2024 edition of Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report, issued on 12 June. The latest data also shows that 2.1 billion people continue to rely on damaging cooking fuels globally.

The report, issued jointly by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the UN Statistics Division (UNSD), the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO), finds that the world remains off course to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 for energy by 2030. There has been some progress on specific elements of the SDG 7 agenda – for example, the increased rate of renewables deployment in the power sector – but progress is insufficient to reach the SDG targets.

A combination of factors contributed to the increase in those without electricity, including the global energy crisis, inflation, growing debt distress in many low-income countries, and increased geopolitical tensions. However, promising trends in the rollout of decentralised energy solutions, largely based on renewable energy, are helping accelerate progress, particularly in rural areas where eight in ten people without access live today. See press release.