According to the World Bank’s as-of-yet unreleased World Development Report 2009, there are between 25 million to 40 million gas-guzzling SUVs in the United States currently. The report claims that if the whole of America were to shift to more fuel-efficient cars en masse, more than 1.6 billion people in the world currently living in the dark can be provided electrification without any increase in the levels of greenhouse gases that lead to climate change.

Phasing out the “evil” SUVs, which were regularly outselling cars till before the recession, would reduce global emissions by a supposed 36 million tonnes of CO2 annually, according to the report.

In comparison, the report says, providing the very basic electrification to people in the world’s poorest countries would add 45 million tonnes of the greenhouse gases. It is unlikely that a switch to electric cars would alleviate the problem, considering EVs need fossil-fuel powerplants to generate electricity.