Colombia lifted an estimated 760,000 people out of multidimensional energy poverty in 2024, the government said, but officials and analysts warned the gains remain uneven and that deep, structural deficits persist in large swaths of the country.
The Ministry of Mines and Energy released the Second Multidimensional Energy Poverty Report (IPEM), saying 265,886 households “overcame key deprivations” last year, tied to lighting, reliable access, and the ability to use electricity for cooking, refrigeration, and communications.
Using an average household size of 2.86 people from the national statistics agency DANE, the ministry calculated that roughly 760,000 Colombians no longer meet the report’s threshold for energy poverty, a decline in the national IPEM rate from 24.3% in 2023 to 22.3% in 2024.
“The president is fulfilling his campaign promise, energy is a social mobilizer and a human right,” Energy Minister Edwin Palma said at the report launch. “Light on the pole is not enough; energy becomes well-being when it translates into health, time, and opportunity inside the home.”
Colombia’s multidimensional energy poverty report found improvement in 91.3% municipalities
The report found improvement in 1,023 of Colombia’s 1,121 municipalities (91.3%). Seventy-two municipalities posted particularly deep reductions, between five and 10 percentage points, enabling 14,299 households to escape energy poverty. The largest average falls were logged in Amazonia-Orinoquia (an average 3.09-point drop) and in departments that historically lag, including Guaviare and Vaupes, where declines exceeded six points.
Still, IPEM stresses persistent, structural gaps. About 22.3% of households nationwide continue to face energy restrictions that limit basic daily activities. The highest concentrations of deprivation remain in Amazonia-Orinoquia, large parts of the Pacific region, and several Caribbean municipalities, the ministry said.
The report flags the “learn and communicate” dimension, which includes internet access and ownership of devices such as computers, smart TVs, and smartphones, as the single largest driver of deprivation, accounting for roughly 70.7% of the index’s weight. That finding underscores how energy poverty compounds educational and digital divides.
Analysis suggests a deep rural-urban divide
Government interventions in 2024 and 2025 included roughly 60,000 new electrical connections, about 9,000 of them through individual photovoltaic systems, with priority given to PDET territories (Programas de Desarrollo con Enfoque Territorial) and areas with the highest energy poverty. The ministry credited a mix of network expansion, decentralized solutions, and targeted public programs for much of the progress but urged continued territorial targeting and quality improvements.
Independent and earlier analyses cited in the report describe a stark rural-urban divide. A March 2025 review noted poverty-energy rates in rural areas can be nearly 11 times higher than in cities, 48% versus 4.3%, and estimated roughly 10 million Colombians living in some form of energy poverty, or about 18.5% of the population.
Rural households are far more likely to rely on wood or charcoal for cooking, with health and environmental costs. More than 1 million households cook with firewood, consuming roughly 4 million tons of wood a year, the equivalent, researchers say, of some 68 million medium-sized trees and the clearing of roughly 200,000 hectares of forest annually.
The human toll is high. Smoke from wood-fired stoves contributes to chronic bronchitis and reduced lung function and increases long-term cancer risks among women and children who do much of the cooking, experts cited in the background analysis warned.
Municipalities with the highest prevalence of energy poverty include Cumaribo and Uribia
IPEM also mapped municipalities with the highest prevalence of energy poverty. Cumaribo (Vichada) topped the list with 63.58% of households in energy poverty, followed by Uribia (La Guajira) at 59.48%, Pacoa (Vaupes) and Yavarate (Vaupes) at about 58.4% each, and Manaure (La Guajira) at 57.2%.
Uribia and Manaure together account for 56,939 of the 265,886 households that overcame deprivations in 2024, roughly 21.4% of that total, the ministry said. The Pacific and Orinoquia-Amazonia regions show persistent structural obstacles: Dispersed settlements, costly logistics, and limited transmission infrastructure that complicate grid expansion.
Energy industry leaders and local officials warned that the transition to renewables and big solar or wind projects faces social and environmental hurdles. In La Guajira, for example, abundant wind and solar potential is constrained by licensing, environmental requirements, and protracted community consultations, barriers that can delay projects and limit benefits to residents, industry representatives told reporters.
The government highlighted policy tools and pilots aimed at reaching hard-to-serve areas. The administration said it approved a package to develop 2,000 “energy communities” with a budget of 900 billion pesos (about US$226.7 million), designed to strengthen local self-generation and broaden access.
Small decentralized technologies, such as individual solar systems and biodigesters, were singled out as scalable solutions: A pilot in Cesar supported by Fondo Accion and IDH has installed nearly 100 biodigesters, which can produce biogas for cooking, reduce deforestation, and generate organic fertilizer for farms.