Originally published in Cipher, February 26, 2024.
Everyone needs modern energy to reach their full potential. Every economy needs low-cost reliable energy at scale to be competitive and to create well-paying jobs. That’s why the world has committed to achieving universal energy access. But this laudable global goal won’t deliver the expected benefits if we don’t update the way we track progress.
Without a new approach, we will leave billions of people behind — and drive an even bigger wedge between rich and poor nations over climate policy. That’s why we need to embrace what my colleagues and I call the Modern Energy Minimum.
Imagine for a moment that the world set a goal of building an educated global workforce for the digital economy, but chose to measure success as everyone being able to read a complete sentence. Basic literacy is essential of course, but completely insufficient.
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