An estimated 1.3 billion people do not have access to electricity. Entire communities are not connected to regular supplies. This situation cannot be allowed to continue.

The irony is that over the past decade, great progress has been made in developing new technologies and energy sources to satisfy the world’s hunger for energy. Ambitious targets have been set for the decarbonization of the world’s industrial economies and for greater energy efficiency. Yet we continue to fail many of the world’s most vulnerable communities. A lack of global agreement and policy direction is denying access to basic energy provision, hindering social and economic development and causing unnecessary hardship and suffering.

Right now, half of the current global GDP would have to be spent between now and the mid-2030s to put in place an energy infrastructure that would redress this imbalance. It seems like an insurmountable challenge, especially when set against the repeated failure to agree on a climate change framework, ongoing political instability in the Middle East and North Africa, continuing high energy price volatility and economic uncertainty.

But the longer we delay, the worse the problem will get. In the words of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, energy is “the golden thread that links together the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals.” Energy fuels social and economic growth. As such, it should be at the top of the long-term global development agenda.

We lack a coherent global framework in which future energy development policy can be debated. This is seriously exacerbating the battle that the world faces in meeting its energy security, social access and climate change challenges. Take nuclear power, for instance. More than 50 countries are currently operating, building or considering nuclear power facilities, and at least 60 nuclear power plants are being constructed around the world. Post-Fukushima, there must be greater consensus on the role that nuclear can play in the global energy mix. It has the enormous potential to contribute to energy security in many regions of the world, especially the dynamic, energy-hungry economies of Asia.

The extraordinary impact of shale gas in the United States has sparked a heated and polarized debate about its potential elsewhere in the world. This debate has exposed a significant gulf in understanding between those who advocate gas as a cleaner, cheaper and plentiful fossil fuel and the proponents of new, renewable technologies that require time, financial support and adaptation from producers and consumers.

This October’s World Energy Congress in Daegu provides us with a rare opportunity to help form a global consensus to identify how to ensure security of energy supply, enhance energy access and mitigate environment impact. The potential impact of a cohesive global energy approach on social and economic development would be profound.

By Cho Hwan-eik, Chair of 2013 World Energy Congress and chief executive of KEPCO