• Report highlights renewable energy technology for electricity generation and improved efficiency.
• The number of people without electricity globally fell from 1.2 billion in 2010 to 840 million today.
Kenya is among the countries that have improved electricity access by the widest margins.
Kenya, India, Bangladesh and Myanmar have made the most progress.
The ranking was made by five global agencies tracking the progress on achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7 (affordable and clean energy).
They are the International Energy Agency, the International Renewable Energy Agency, the UN Statistics Division, the World Bank and the World Health Organization.
"The number of people without electricity fell from 1.2 billion in 2010 to 840 million today —with India, Bangladesh, Kenya and Myanmar among the countries making the most progress," the 'Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report' says.
The report was launched last week but on Friday was discussed at the UN-Habitat Assembly in Nairobi.
It tracks global progress on SDG 7 and highlights efforts to deploy renewable energy technology for electricity generation and improved energy efficiency.
"However, without more sustained efforts, 650 million people (eight per cent of the global population) will still lack access to electricity in 2030, with 90 per cent of them living in sub-Saharan Africa," the authors say.
Electricity access in Kenya has increased from 29 per cent in 2014 to 73 per cent today, largely due to the World Bank-funded Last Mile Connectivity Project.
The UN-Habitat Assembly, which ended on Friday, was attended by about 1,500 delegates.
UN-Habitat executive director Maimunah Sharif said the race to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals will be decided by how countries urbanise.
She said the UN had come up with a 'roadmap' to enable the UN to improve urban data collection and diagnostic tools for inequality and the impacts of urbanisation on economic growth, climate change and disaster response and prevention.
Unep acting executive director Joyce Msuya said, “How we manage our cities will determine our success in achieving sustainable development goals. With 70 per cent of the infrastructure needed for 2050 still to be built, we have a unique opportunity to lock in sustainable urban development into the design."
(Edited by R.Wamochie)