Ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all A/RES/74/225 Reaffirming further that each country must take primary responsibility for its own development and that the role of national policies and development strategies cannot be overemphasized in the achievement of sustainable development, and recognizing the need for the creation of an enabling environment at all levels and across all sectors for the achievement of sustainable development, Reaffirming the sovereign rights of countries over their energy resources and their right to define appropriate policies for the production and use of energy, recognizing that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development shall be implemented for the full benefit of all, for today’s generation and for future generations, Emphasizing that universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all is an integral part of poverty eradication and the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and that the increased use and promotion of new and renewable energy, including in off-grid and decentralized systems, and energy efficiency could make a significant contribution in that regard, Deeply concerned that nearly 3 billion people in developing countries, especially in rural areas, rely on traditional biomass, coal and kerosene for cooking and heating, with disproportionate health and workload impacts on women, children and people in vulnerable situations, including an estimated 4 million premature deaths annually, that, while the global population without access to electricity fell below 1 billion, close to 840 million people are still without access to electricity, that reliability and affordability remain challenges in many countries, even as the number of household connections increases, that Africa accounts for more than half of both access figures and that, even when energy services are available, millions of poor people are unable to pay for them, Noting with concern that energy represents less than 1 per cent of overall United Nations expenditure on the Sustainable Development Goals, despite its critical importance also in achieving other goals, Emphasizing the critical socioeconomic benefits of affordable, reliabl e, sustainable and modern energy and the need to reframe the understanding of energy from a technical unit to a requirement for basic social services, including health care, economic development and poverty eradication, Highlighting the importance of the empowerment of developing countries to achieve universal access through the rapid expansion of affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy worldwide, Highlighting also the significant efforts made in developing countries that contributed to an increase in the global electrification rate to 89 per cent in 2017, and stressing the need to further close the electrification gap in many difficult -to-reach populations, in particular in sub-Saharan Africa, Recognizing that each country has primary responsibility for its own economic and social development and that this will include the mobilization of financial resources, as well as capacity-building and the transfer of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on mutually agreed terms, including concessional and preferential terms, Welcoming the increase in the share of renewable energy as a part of total final energy consumption in 2016 at the fastest rate since 2012 and the significant reductions in the cost of renewable energy, the sector’s net positive job contributions and the rapid expansion of renewable energy capacity additions, which are now greater than those of other resources in the electricity sector, and noting that the levelized cost of solar and wind energy in many regions of the world is fully competitive with traditional energy resources, 19-22494 3/8