Assessing the extent of evidence available relating to the impact of solar energy for households (HHs) in developing countries, surveys are reviewed focusing on the impact of pico‐photovoltaic (e.g., solar lanterns) or solar home systems (SHS) on rural HHs and directly related economic activities of their occupiers. Ninety‐eight documents have been analyzed. Areas of enquiry have included the impact of small individual solar photovoltaic systems on different facets of the life of HHs' occupiers: their education, health, finance, livelihoods, and social relations.

An overview of climate change mitigation opportunities in the world's buildings is presented, based on the key building-specific findings of the Fourth Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change. Buildings and the building stock can play a major role in mitigating climate change in the short- to medium-term, since substantial reductions in CO2 emissions from their energy use can be achieved over the coming years.

The building sector is considered as the biggest single contributor to world energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, a good understanding of the nature and structure of energy use in buildings is crucial for establishing the adequate future energy and climate change policies. Availability of the updated data is becoming increasingly important in order to allow a rigorous analysis. In this paper, recent data on the world energy consumption in both residential and commercial buildings are reported.