Actor Atlas

• Nearly 40% of the world's population rely on wood, coal, charcoal, or animal waste to cook their food in outdated cookstoves and open fires and are breathing in toxic smoke that causes lung disease and kills nearly two million people a year, most of them women and children.

• Cost of energy is too high for the large majority of citizens.

• Low resource productivity slows economic growth, harms business results and energy security.

• Too high greenhouse gas emission and local pollution; High fuel price volatility; imbalance of payments: Increasing the share of energy from renewable sources, and improving energy efficiency can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and local pollution; energy from renewable sources can insulate countries from fuel price volatility; and improve those countries' balance of payments.

• From: Renewable Energy Infographic (June, 2012)
  • Renewable energy investment has been rising rapidly around the world - to $260 billion last year - and created 2.3 million jobs
  • Almost 20% of Denmark's electricity is produced from wind power
  • Global Photo Voltaic capacity has been increasing at an average annual growth rate of more than 40% since 2000 Renewable Energy Infographic (June, 2012)
  • Brazil's hydroelectric dams produce 83% of the country's electricity Renewable Energy Infographic (June, 2012)
  • The technical potential of geothermal energy is up to 15x the world's total electricity production

• Universal Access to Energy (Infographic, June 13, 2012): Over 1 billion people worldwide lack access to electricity; over 95% of these people live in Sub-Saharan Africa or developing Asia.

What to change?

• Keeping your tires properly inflated can save 5% in overall vehicle fuel consumption (Energy Efficiency Infographic);
• Adoption of Clean Cooking Solutions (ref. Universal Access to Energy (Infographic, June 13, 2012))

What to change?

• More efficient manufacturing and IT usage could save the equivalent annual energy consumption of the EU and China combined (Energy Efficiency Infographic);
• Adoption of small-scale lighting solutions (ref. Infographic; Universal access)

Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) sets these sector-level energy goals to achieve by 2030:

• doubling the rate of improvement in energy efficiency; and
• doubling the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.

What to change?

• Adoption of Mini/micro grids (ref. Infographic; universal access)
• Adoption of decentralized solutions (ref. Infographic; universal access)
• Wind technology could provide 9% of global electricity by 2030 (Renewable Energy Infographic (June, 2012))

Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) sets this global macro-level energy goal for humanity to achieve by 2030:

• ensuring universal access to modern energy

What to change?

• Government leadership is key to achieving universal access in a country (ref. Infographic; universal access)