While the discussions on strategies to reduce global emissions rage on in Cancún, too many of the world's poorest people continue to live without adequate access to energy.

It's clear that for people living in poverty, energy access is absolutely essential for a better life. The services provided by energy are needed in so many ways: cooking meals, lighting, refrigeration of food and medical supplies, and for earning a living - the list goes on. And yet, too few leaders and decision-makers are concerned enough to act on the issue.

Using traditional forms of energy is a major burden - collecting firewood for cooking can take some women in Ethiopia three hours a day on average, and inhaling the smoke from cooking on open fires causes many health problems. A staggering 1.4 million people die each year as a result of inhaling smoke from traditional stoves.

For people living in poverty, energy access is crucial, as the experiences of people like Rosa, a Turkana woman living in the Kakuma refugee camp in north western Kenya, make abundantly clear: "For me, getting energy for cooking and lighting is a daily worry. It's so hard to find firewood that I cook for my family only once a day, in the evening. The fire provides the light for cooking and eating a meal with my children. After eating is bedtime."

The scale of the problem is truly daunting. Some 3 billion people still cook using traditional biomass (such as wood, charcoal and dung) and 1.5 billion have no access to electricity. Recent progress on increasing the number of people with access to electricity has been commendable, but a disconnect remains between gaining electricity and realising development benefits, such as increased income and better health. Progress on reducing the number of people cooking with dirty fuels has been abysmal. At the current rate there will still be 3 billion people cooking with dirty fuels and 1.4 million people dying from indoor air pollution in 20 years time.

The millennium development goals (MDGs) remain all but out of reach in the period up to 2015. Energy access arrived as a hot topic too late for the MDGs, but it has since been recognised as vital in terms of achieving the goals.

Looking past the current MDGs, it's important we have something to focus efforts on, and energy should be recognised in this. To this end the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, launched the target of universal energy access by 2030. This is a laudable goal and one that all governments should rally behind. Broad engagement from the development community and national governments should work to refine the goal and set intermediary targets.

Some find the link between energy access and climate change a source of tension, arguing that it is foolhardy, given that the world is hurtling towards dangerously high levels of carbon in the atmosphere, to encourage nearly half the world's population to use more energy. This position is short-sighted and unjust. Meeting the basic energy needs of all the world's people would contribute less than 2% to current global emissions. People living in poverty should not be deprived of the opportunity to improve their lives because of the developed world's historical profligacy.

For others, climate change mitigation funding represents a golden opportunity to get cash for energy access projects. This apparent win-win is rarely realised. To date, mitigation funds have mainly benefitted middle-income countries, rather than the poorest and most vulnerable who are in desperate need of energy services.

Practical Action has just published the Poor People's Energy Outlook, a report calling for the end of '"energy apartheid" in developing countries and the establishment of a globally agreed set of minimum standards for energy access.

What emerges from the research is how critical the relationship is between people and energy - how it can hold people back and how it can transform lives. Mamdhur is a farmer from an indigenous group who lives with his family in the foothills of the Nepal Himalaya. He explains how improved lighting changed his life: "Now we have electric lighting, we are very much relieved. We have more time to spend with our children and families, and no longer breathe in the smoke from the kerosene lamp that used to hurt our lungs. It was my dream to have lighting facilities in my village. The dark has turned to light." Access to modern energy can truly transform the lives of people living in poverty.

We need a concerted and coherent approach to achieve universal energy access. The gravity of the issue needs to be met with financial support from donors, national governments and the private sector. Policies at international and national level should encourage a delivery ecosystem that's fit for purpose, and practitioners need to focus on the impacts that can be realised with modern energy.

The target of universal energy access by 2030 is attainable. The climate change blinkers need to be removed from the energy debate with greater recognition of energy access for poverty reduction. We have the technology and are all too familiar with the barriers. Champions are needed to drive the energy access agenda.

Energy apartheid is deeply unjust. It can, and must, be addressed.