Can we really say we are living a good and decent life? So we know nearly half of the world’s population（more than 3 billion people）lives on less than $2.50 a day? More than 1.3 billion people live in extreme poverty on less than $1.25 a day. All children should have the rights to grow up in a healthy environment with access to education. However, for 1 billion children worldwide, this is out of reach. According to UNICEF, 22,000 children deaths every day can be attributed to poverty.
Today, October 17th is “International Day for the Eradication of Poverty”. On this day, people from various countries, backgrounds, beliefs and social origins mark their solidarity and respect with the less fortunate. Today promotes awareness of the need to eradicate poverty and destitution worldwide, and in particular, in developing countries.
The World Bank Organization describes poverty as: “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time.”
This year is the 25th anniversary of the “International Day for the Eradication of Poverty”. This year’s theme is “Coming together with those furthest behind to build an inclusive world of universal respect for human rights and dignity”.
Poverty is more than the lack of income. Energy poverty is an important issue worldwide. For the first time in its nearly 100-year history, Foreign Affairs covered the topic of energy poverty in its new issue. Energy poverty remains a global challenge for the future. People should have affordable, safe and reliable energy to meet their basic needs. When this is lacking, they are living in the ‘energy poverty’.
Imagine what life would be life if we do not have energy sources, like electricity. Imagine 1.2 billion people living without electricity; and 16% of the world’s population without lamps, appliances or mobile phone chargers. Even today many areas of our planet lack reliable energy services. Energy poverty is a direct threat to life and health.
Photovoltaic power is an effective solution to energy poverty. Photovoltaic technology is still developing rapidly and its cost continues to decline. In the next 2-3 years, photovoltaic power will become the cheapest power source in many parts of the world. It is affordable energy, even for poor areas.
Renewable energy solutions are good for the environment and at the same time beneficial in alleviating poverty. When done well, they pay for themselves and generate an income stream to reduce poverty. The desire to increase energy access remains a strong driving force for poverty alleviation in rural areas of developing countries.
Photovoltaic power can contribute to the social responsibility of restoring the earth's ecology worldwide. According to the National Energy Board, In the first half of 2018, China's photovoltaic power generation installed capacity of 24.306 million kilowatts. Compared with the same period last year, the growth rate was basically the same. Photovoltaic power station produced 12.062 million kilowatts (a decrease of 30%) while distributed photovoltaic was 12.24 million kilowatts (an increase of 72%). According to the Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the global installed capacity of photovoltaics will reach 4,000 GW, and photovoltaic power generation will increase to 17% by 2040.
Demand for photovoltaic will further increase. Photovoltaic and solar energy is considered as clean, reliable and green energy. Solar energy resources are inexhaustible – the energy from the sun shining on earth is 6000 times more than the energy consumed.
As the world leading company in photovoltaic and solar industry, we try our best to uphold our social responsibility. LONGi Solar has many successful efforts in poverty alleviation - within China such as in Ganzi, Guizhou, Guangdong and Tangtou; in Ulu Baram, Malaysia and other poor regions.
LONGi Solar has a vision to use solar and photovoltaic energy to reduce poverty and contributing to society, light people’s life and make our world better place.