Across the Asia-Pacific region, some 1.7 billion people rely heavily on traditional biomass for cooking and heating, and almost 1 billion lack electricity. This has enormous socio-economic costs - degrading the environment, spreading disease, increasing child mortality and weakening social services. It also restricts the opportunities for women, who have to gather and use traditional fuels. All of these have major implications for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): without better access to energy services, many of the MDGs may be missed.
