We are a newly established Lebanon based global advocacy association, urgently advocating for energy humanism to dramatically reduce rampant energy poverty.

Nearly 4 billion people, a staggering number, live in electricity poverty, using less than 1200 kWh per year per capita. Electricity would free women and children from the pump, the stove, and the washtub. Around 2.3 billion people worldwide cook using open fires or inefficient stoves fuelled by kerosene, biomass (wood, animal dung and crop waste) and coal, which generates harmful household air pollution. According to the WHO, household air pollution was responsible for an estimated 3.2 million deaths per year in 2020, including over 237 000 deaths of children under the age of 5. Women and children, typically responsible for household chores such as cooking bear the greatest health burden from using polluting fuels and technologies in homes.

Expanding the use of clean fuels and technologies to reduce household air pollution and protect health is essential. These include solar, electricity, biogas, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), natural gas, alcohol fuels, and biomass stoves that meet the emission targets in the WHO Guidelines.

The real challenge we face is not to use less energy. Instead, it is to make energy more affordable and more abundant so that we can continue adapting to the weather (whatever it is) and help ensure that more people all over the world — particularly women and girls — can enjoy higher living standards.