聯合國公衛與發展專家表示，消弭「能源匱乏」是哥本哈根氣候會談需要解決的議題。聯合國發展總署官員柯久文（Olav Kjorven）表示，世上幾乎一半人口，與「如何以更少碳排放、更潔淨能源進行發展」此議題根本無關，因為他們的實際生活遠比追求上述目標基本的多。
在一份名為「開發中國家能源使用現況」（The Energy Access Situation in Developing Countries）報告發表會中，柯久文表示，這些無法獲得能源的人們因為沒有運輸工具，而必須背負沉重的食物與用水；也必須使用有害健康的柴火烹飪。
這份由聯合國發展總署及世衛組織共同完成的報告指出，目前有超過10億人處於無電可用的狀態，當中8成人居住在南亞與撒哈拉沙漠以南非洲地區。
於2015年前消彌全球一半的貧窮人口是千禧發展8個目標的首要之務。然而根據報告指出，假若成千上百萬的人們持續處於無電、無現代燃料的生活狀況，那麼此一目標將遙遙無期。
環境永續是另一個千禧發展目標。聯合國發展總署及世衛組織官員表示，擴大能源獲取程度對解決貧窮以及防止愛滋、瘧疾和其他致命疾病的擴散實為重要。該報告也提到，雖然能源並非千禧發展目標之一，但是若不大幅提升能源的質與量，千禧發展目標的宏大抱負將無法實現。
報告序言中提到，能源應要滿足窮人的基本需要，特別是烹煮所需的熱能與機械能。序言中並強調，進步的能源科技可以避免不必要的死亡。
在貧窮國家，每年有近兩百萬人因使用固態燃料而死於室內空汙。報告指出，在貧窮國家，尤其是撒哈拉沙漠以南非洲地區，半數因肺炎或肺病兒的死亡肇因於固體燃料的使用。
Energy poverty is an issue that must be addressed at the upcoming climate change summit in Copenhagen say top United Nations experts on public health and development.
"Almost half of humanity is completely disconnected from the debate on how to drive human progress with less emissions and greener energy because their reality is much more basic than that," said Olav Kjorven.
"They carry heavy loads of food and water on their backs because they don't have transport. They cook with wood fires that damage their health," Kjorven told reporters at the launch of a new UN study, entitled, "The Energy Access Situation in Developing Countries.
" The study, jointly carried out by the UN Development Programme and the World Health Organization, points out that currently over one billion people in world have no access to electricity and that 80 percent of them live in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Slashing global poverty in half by 2015 - the first of eight internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals ?is unlikely to be achieved if hundreds of millions of people across the world continue to live without electricity and modern fuels, according to the new report.
Environmental sustainability is one of the eight goals. UNDP's Kjorven and WHO officials hold that expanding energy access is essential to tackle global poverty and spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other deadly diseases.
In their report, authors Maria Neira and Veerle Vandweerd note that, while there are no Millennium Development Goals on energy, "The global aspirations embodied in the goals will not become a reality without massive increases in the quantity and quality of energy purposes.
" "This is needed to meet basic needs of poor men and women, especially heat for cooking, and mechanical power," they wrote in the report's foreword, stressing that improved energy technologies can prevent unnecessary deaths.
Every year nearly two million people in poor countries die due to indoor air pollution from solid fuel use. The authors say that in poor countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, half of all deaths from pneumonia and lung diseases occur due to the use of solid fuel.
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