The lack of access to reliable and clean energy supplies is a major barrier to improving well-being around the globe - there are an estimated 1.6 billion people living in the rural areas of developing countries who lack access to electricity - but so is dependence on fossil fuels. Climate driven "natural" disasters also threaten far worse. Rather than just failing to improve the human condition, we could be about to witness the great reversal of human progress. This is according to the abstract of a recent publication by the New Economics Foundation.