As energy is the source of all life, so modern energy can be the source of a better life for all. The International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook (WEO) has focused attention on modern energy access for a decade, providing the international community with quantitative, objective analysis. This report, a special early excerpt of World Energy Outlook 2011, tackles the critical issue of financing the delivery of universal modern energy access. Modern energy services are crucial to human well‐being and to a country’s economic development; and yet globally over 1.3 billion people are without access to electricity and 2.7 billion people are without clean cooking facilities. More than 95% of these people are either in sub‐Saharan Africa or developing Asia and 84% are in rural areas.