Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
2.3 billion people use still using polluting fuels to cook and 675 million have no electricity, experts warn
A farmer tills his land under power lines near central China's Henan province on October 23, 2021

ABOUT 2.3 billion people around the world are still using polluting fuels to cook and 675 million don’t have electricity, according to a damning new report released today by five international organisations.

The report said that at current rates, 660m people are projected to be without electricity and 1.9bn won’t have clean cooking opportunities by 2030.

The report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), International Renewable Energy Agency, UN Statistics Division, World Bank and World Health Organisation said that at the midway point towards the goal, the world is not on track to reach the energy target of 2030, which will negatively affect the health of millions and accelerate climate change.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
FLAGGING POWER OF THE WEST: Nigerian and US soldiers raise their respective flags at a US military base in the country in 2018; last year, at the demand of the new transitional government of General Abdurahmane Tchiani, all US troops left. Photo: Africom
Features / 7 August 2025
7 August 2025

ROGER McKENZIE reports on the west African country, under its new anti-imperialist government, taking up the case for compensation for colonial-era massacres

Relatives of Palestinian child Salem Hussein, 12, killed in an Israeli army bombardment of Gaza, mourn beside his body at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, July 22, 2025
North Africa / 24 July 2025
24 July 2025

For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE

Sudanese displaced families take shelter in a school after being evacuated by the Sudanese army from areas once controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Omdurman, Sudan, March 23, 2025
Northeast Africa / 11 July 2025
11 July 2025
Similar stories
A child rides a bike at Whitelee Windfarm in East Renfrewshi
Britain / 13 December 2024
13 December 2024
But Unite warns that Labour has ‘missed a golden opportunity to bring the national grid under public ownership’
Shadow Energy Secretary Ed Miliband on board the jack-up bar
Features / 10 October 2024
10 October 2024
The government’s reliance on unproven and short-termist technology won’t deliver answers to today’s energy crisis, warns MARK MASLIN
A general view of the Sizewell nuclear power plant in Suffol
Features / 6 September 2024
6 September 2024
LINDA PENTZ GUNTER condemns Starmer’s willingness to let children go hungry and the elderly shiver while pouring billions into doomed nuclear projects that won’t address the climate crisis