Although nearly 92 percent of the global population now has basic access to electricity, more than 666 million people still live without it, according to a report published on Wednesday by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and its partners. While the rate of basic energy access has improved since 2022, the current pace remains insufficient to achieve universal access by 2030, one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the report warned. Despite progress, significant regional disparities persist. The report estimates that 1.5 billion people in rural areas still lack access to clean cooking solutions, while more than two billion people continue to rely on polluting and hazardous fuels such as firewood and charcoal to meet their cooking needs. “Despite progress in some parts of the world, the expansion of electricity and clean cooking access remains disappointingly slow, especially in Africa,” said Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), as 85 percent of the global population without electricity access reside in sub-Saharan Africa.