Summary:
Energy access is the 'golden thread' that weaves
together economic growth, human development, and
environmental sustainability.1 Yet, the global community
is still far from «ensuring access to affordable, reliable,
sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030.»2
Moreover, the service quality and reliability available to
many of those who nominally have access is so poor
that it does little to improve daily life and has negligible
economic impact. Despite recent progress, the world is
not on-track to achieving the goal of universal energy
access-sustainable development goal 7 (SDG 7) in the
United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development-in electricity, with sub-Saharan Africa
(SSA) at greatest risk of being left behind.3
The solutions to reach universal access must be
commensurate with the magnitude of the challenge. In
a few words: we must think big. Our mission is to
achieve full electrification of entire provinces, countries,
and even regions so that all citizens, public institutions,
businesses, and industries have access to safe, secure,
affordable, reliable, and adequate energy services.
In financial terms, this means a substantial
augmentation of public and, in most cases, private
investment, with a focus on specific segments of the
electrical supply chain. At $30.2 billion per year, current
annual total global investment in electricity access falls
far short of the estimated $52 billion needed annually
to meet our universal access goal. Private investment in
electricity access has increased considerably over the
past few years: in 2015-2016, private investors
provided the bulk of funding in the sector-60% of total
commitments-for the first time. Yet this investment has
been disproportionally in generation projects in a small
number of countries. Transmission and distribution
received less than 20% of total investment in the
sector; SSA, which includes 15 countries in a ranking of
the top 20 countries with access deficits, received just
15% of total financial flows.
[...]
Publication date: 01-09-2019
IIT-19-141I
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