74/100

global average 2019 SDG Gender Index score on SDG 7

3+

billion people worldwide relied on combustible fuels in 2012

1-4

hours daily is what women in developing countries spend  collecting biomass for fuel

Access to affordable, clean energy can power global poverty reduction. Yet, more than one billion people lacked access to electricity in 2015, and three billion people relied on fuels such as wood, coal, kerosene and animal dung that undermine health and contribute to climate change. Over half the population of the developing world cooks over open fires. In 2012, the resulting air pollution contributed to around four million deaths from illnesses such as cancer, pneumonia and lung disease, with women and children accounting for 60% of these deaths.

On average, the rural poor travel the furthest to collect fuel that is, in turn, the most inefficient in converting to energy. As with water collection, girls and women often travel long distances for heavy loads of firewood, with the average wood load carried by women in Sub-Saharan Africa weighing around 20 kilograms.

The risks are also similar: sexual violence, fatigue, and lost time that could be spent in school or earning an income.

Problems intensify during crises, when the world’s most vulnerable people become those most acutely affected by a lack of clean energy. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and FAO found that access to fuel was one of the most pressing daily issues for the over 65 million people displaced worldwide by 2015. A 2016 study of a refugee camp in Tanzania found that attacks on girls and women collecting firewood spiked during influxes of new refugees, when increased demand meant that they had to travel further for firewood.