Energy Access: Humanitarian Relief

The main aim of this research is to understand if energy access interventions within humanitarian relief are an effective way of improving the health, safety and livelihoods of beneficiaries, while also having wider environmental benefits including, the reduction of CO2 emissions. The key findings are that modern energy access technologies such as solar lanterns provide significant benefits to beneficiaries. In particular there are positive impacts associated with improvements in indoor air quality and the removal of risks associated with fire. The research suggests interventions also have positive impacts on the perceptions of sexual- and gender-based violence (SGBV), education and livelihoods. However, the research also highlights a discrepancy between the reported levels of CO2 emissions following solar lantern distributions compared to actual, life cycle emissions.