UNEP Goodwill Ambassador decries energy poverty

Speaking in Nairobi on Friday after a five-day tour of parts of Kenya, the Brazilian-born fashion model and actress said that after visiting a section of the society in the country, one realises a huge sense of community and partnership about how matters can be addressed when people under the same predicament came together to make a difference for themselves and for the world.
“Energy poverty affects directly the education of children because they cannot study at night due to lack of electricity which if it can be made available to all, so many basic issues of survival can be resolved,” she said.
Energy poverty refers to the situation of large numbers of people in developing countries whose well-being is negatively affected by very low consumption of energy, using of dirty or polluting fuels, and excessive time spent collecting fuel to meet basic needs. Gisele, who is in the country in the context of the UN International Year of Sustainable Energy for All, where she visited small-scale sustainable energy solutions projects, said the fact that many women, men and children will be living in energy poverty in the next 20 years should be termed as injustice and not development but reiterated for energy for all is achievable because only 3 percent of global investment on energy in the next two decades could end energy poverty for good.
“There is always hope. Sustainable energy is crucial for the well-being of world’s people and future of global economy since preservation of our planet is essential for the well-being of individual human beings,” she said.
She described her one-day stay with a woman called Naomi in the rural part of western Kenya as “amazing”, saying it was unimaginable how the women managed to multi-task domestic chores without any sweat. – Xinhua.