To eat your food AND breathe clean air

The United Nations has called for universal access to modern energy services by 2030. At the same time, it has challenged the world to reduce energy intensity of 40 percent by that same year. If those two goals are met, the United Nations calculates, global emissions will increase by only 1.3 percent.

To help the United Nations expand access to modern energy for the 1.5 billion people who don't have it -- and do so in a way that doesn't cause the world's greenhouse gas emissions to skyrocket are a series of U.N. initiatives, including a new Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. The aim is to find cleaner alternatives for the roughly 3 billion people whom U.S. EPA estimate cook their food and heat their homes by burning coal, wood, animal dung or other materials.

According to the IEA, about 2.7 billion people -- about 40 percent of the global population -- still rely on the traditional use of biomass for cooking. Smoke from poorly ventilated cookstoves contributes to the early deaths of more than 2 million people a year, according to the U.N. Foundation.

There are basically three categories involved in bringing clean energy to those who currently have none: grid extension, where major institutions like the World Bank are helping; mini-grid systems, which have shown promise at the local village level, but also have high capital costs; and off-grid distributed generation. Many companies are also producing and distributing 2-watt solar-panel lanterns using LED lighting that last anywhere between four and 12 hours -- and also allow users to charge cell phones.

The UN's hope is to do for cookstoves and small-scale solar what happened with cell phones. Do you believe energy poverty will be tackled by 2030? DO write in.