Energy poverty - lack of access to electricity and reliance on traditional fuels for cooking and heating - remains an enduring problem. Globally, more than a billion people live without electricity and, nearly three billion depend entirely on wood, charcoal and dung for other domestic energy needs. Their search for energy fuels and services is an arduous, daily grind. Lack of access to modern energy has a broad impact. It not only limits economic opportunities for income generation and blunts efforts to escape poverty; but it also severely impacts living conditions for women and children and contributes to global deforestation and climate change. In a business-as-usual scenario, by 2030, the estimated number of deaths from dependence on traditional fuels will likely be greater than those individually from malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, underscoring the necessity of finding more sustainable forms of energy supply.
Advancing Sustainable Energy was prepared for the occasion of the Asian and Pacific Energy Forum (APEF) as an up-to-date catalogue of UN-Energy Asia-Pacific - its members, case studies and an assessment of member organizations' perspectives on enhanced energy security. ESCAP is the secretariat for UN-Energy Asia-Pacific, a part of the global coordination group UN-Energy. 10 members participated in the questionnaire to gather information for this publication. Stakeholders, especially in member States, can read this booklet to get the most comprehensive one-stop understanding of the vision, strategy and activities of ADB, ESCAP, FAO, UNCCD, UNCDF, UNDP, UNEP, UN-Habitat, UNIDO and World Bank on energy in the Asia-Pacific Region. This product aims to raise awareness and coordination, as well as inspire ideas for improving and initiating partnerships between countries, the United Nations and all development partners.
This study on innovative sanitation financing recognizes the challenge facing the region, to halve the proportion of the population without access to sanitation by 2015. The study proposes a “paradigm shift” to outcome models, recognizing that sanitation not only remains a focus of international development targets but is also linked to many other development issues such as health, environment, education, gender, disability, tourism and economic growth. This study proposes the inclusion of the private sector in a value proposition, with everyone in society benefiting from improved sanitation, and generating the willingness to pay for these services. ESCAP published this discussion paper, targeted for discussions at the Second Asia-Pacific Water Forum (2APWS), in Chiang Mai, May 2013, to provide background materials for the discussions at both the Technical workshops and the Focus Area Sessions.
This assessment report presents an overview of the energy access situation in the Asia-Pacific region, including prevalent policies and programmes to address them, with the view to identify common challenges that could be addressed through regional cooperation.