An edited volume on energy poverty. Nearly one quarter of humanity still lacks access to electricity. Close to one third rely on traditional fuels like firewood and cow dung for cooking, at great cost to their health and welfare. The chapters explain the scope of the problem and suggest practical ways to fix it.

• Part I: Taking Stock of Energy Poverty


• Introduction: The End of Energy Poverty: Pathways to Development


• 1: Fatih Birol: Achieving Energy For All Will Not Cost The Earth


• 2: Benjamin Sovacool: Defining, Measuring, and Tackling Energy Poverty


• 3: Douglas F. Barnes, Hussain Samad, Cesar Calderon, and Sudeshna Ghosh Banerjee: The Development Impact of Energy Access


• 4: Sudeshna Ghosh Banerjee, Mikul Bhatia, Elisa Portale, Ruchi Soni, and Nicolina Angelou: The World Bank's Perspective on Energy Access


• 5: Nigel Bruce and Chen Ding: Health Benefits from Energy Access in LMICs: Mechanisms, Impacts, and Policy Opportunities


• 6: Kalpana Balakrishnan, Zoë Chafe, Tord Kjellstrom, Thomas E. McKone, and Kirk R. Smith: Energy Poverty and Public Health: Impacts of Solid Cookfuel


• 7: Barbara C. Farhar, Beth Osnes, Elizabeth A. Lowry: Energy and Gender


• 8: Morgan Bazilian, Ryan Economy, Patrick Nussbaumer, Erik Haites, Kandeh K. Yumkella, Mark Howells, Minoru Takada, Dale S. Rothman, and Michael Levi: Beyond Basic Access: The Scale of Investment Required for Universal Energy Access


• 9: Allan Hoffman: Energy and Water: A Critical Linkage


• Part II: Lessons Learned


• 10: Wenke Han, Luo Zhihong, and Lijuan Fan: Striving Towards Development: China's Energy Poverty Alleviation Efforts


• 11: Debajit Palit, Subhes C. Bhattacharyya, and Akanksha Chaurey: Indian Approaches to Energy Access


• 12: Gilberto De Martino Jannuzzi and José Goldemberg: Modern Energy Services to Low Income Households in Brazil: Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead


• 13: Laura El-Katiri: Energy Poverty in the Middle East and North Africa


• 14: Abeeku Brew-Hammond, Gifty Serwaa Mensah, and Owusu Amponsah: Energy Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: Poverty Amidst Abundance


• 15: Doug Koplow: Global Energy Subsidies: Scale, Opportunity Costs, and Barriers to Reform


• 16: Phil LaRocco: Is Small Beautiful?


• Part III: Challenges and Policy Options


• 17: Jason E. Bordoff: Expanding Energy Access: An Assessment of U.S. Policy


• 18: Richenda Van Leeuwen and Yasemin Erboy: The Energy Access Practitioner Network


• 19: Thiyagarajan Velumail, Chris Turton, and Nick Beresnev: The Energy Plus Approach: Reducing Poverty with Productive Uses of Energy


• 20: Xia Zuzhang: Unlocking Financial Resources


• 21: Leila Benali and Andy Barrett: Alleviating Energy Poverty in Africa: A Story of Leapfrogging, Localizing, and Fast-Tracking

Antoine Halff is a senior official of the International Energy Agency, the head of its oil unit, and the editor of its authoritative monthly publication, the Oil Market Report. He has spent the last 20 years of his career focusing on energy issues in a series of positions spanning the worlds of government, finance, consulting, higher education, and the media, including New York bureau chief of famed newsletter Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, director of global energy for political-risk consultancy Eurasia Group, deputy head of research at Newedge, one of the world's top brokerages, and lead economist with the US Department of Energy's research arm, the Energy Information Administration. He has also taught courses on the Geopolitics of Energy and related topics at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. He was born and educated in Paris and has lived and worked in Paris, Seoul, New York, and Washington, DC.
Jon Rozhon is Senior Researcher at the Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) and President of Oak Leaf Energy Training. He is Editor-in-Chief of the CERI journal, Geopolitics of Energy and author of numerous studies in areas as diverse as electric power, energy investment, and natural gas vehicles. He was Lecturer in English at the Gifu University for Foreign Languages for 15 years and has spent the past six years at CERI. In 2010, he started Oak Leaf Energy Training, which has provided training for over 100 corporations and government agencies. He holds an MA in English from Lakehead University and an MBA from McGill.
Benjamin K. Sovacool is Director of the Danish Center for Energy Technology at AU-Herning and a Professor of Business and Social Sciences at Aarhus University. He is also Associate Professor of Law at Vermont Law School and Director of the Energy Security and Justice Program at their Institute for Energy and the Environment, as well as the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Energy Research and Social Science. He works as a researcher and consultant on renewable energy and energy efficiency, the politics of large-scale energy infrastructure, designing public policy to improve energy security and access to electricity, and building adaptive capacity to the consequences of climate change. He is a Contributing Author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) forthcoming Fifth Assessment (AR5). He has consulted for the Asian Development Bank, United Nations Development Program, and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.