UN issues new roadmap for clean energy access for all by 2030
3/11/2021: The plan announced by UN Secretary-General António Guterres aims to ensure that 500 million more people gain access to electricity by 2025. The roadmap also calls for fossil fuel consumption subsidies to be re-directed towards renewable energy.
Source: UN Development Programme
New funding alliance aims to advance access to energy for all
1/11/2021: The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet aims to unlock $100 billion in public and private financing to reach 1 billion underserved people with reliable, renewable power. It aims to change the current trajectory of 243 GW of coal plants being planned, permitted, or under construction in developing countries.
Source: The Rockefeller Foundation
What will replace coal finance for poor countries?
5/10/2021: China has withdrawn finance for new coal-fired power plants overseas but Africa still needs to triple its electricity capacity to end energy poverty. The successful diplomacy that has eliminated public funding for overseas coal projects needs to be matched by funding clean power plants.
Source: Inter Press Service
Is China's pledge to cut overseas coal funding a game-changer?
22/9/2021: China's pledge to stop funding overseas coal has been welcomed - but the world's top polluter has not set out a timetable. Other questions remain, not least why private banks and institutional investors from Japan, the US and the UK bankroll so many coal projects in the developing world.
Source: CNA
Kenya tops world in growth in new electricity connections
8/7/2021: The latest progress report on the Sustainable Development Goal for energy finds that Kenya has increased access to electricity faster than other countries. This outcome stems from Kenya’s last-mile connectivity programme, targeting rural areas.
Source: The East African
Achieving universal access to electricity by 2030 is off track
7/6/2021: During the last decade, the number of people without electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa actually increased, despite falling elsewhere. According to the latest Energy Progress Report, an estimated 660 million people will still lack access to electricity in 2030, most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa, despite the Global Goal to ensure universal access by that date.
Source: The World Bank
Zimbabwe’s energy policy still favouring coal over renewables
1/12/2020: Despite Zimbabwe’s abundant potential for renewable power, the country is embarking on a coal-power building spree of as much as 8 gigawatts, much of it to be built and financed by Chinese companies.
Source: China Dialogue
Nigerian Damilola Ogunbiyi gets top UN sustainable energy job
30/10/2019: The first woman to lead the charge for electrification in rural Nigeria will shortly take on her new role as UN special representative for sustainable energy and CEO of Sustainable Energy for All.
Source: Climate Home News
Rockefeller chief wants to redefine 'energy poverty'
3/10/2019: A new commission convened by theRockefeller Foundation and a handful of high-powered partners aims to redefine what the world means by “energy poverty” and to push for a more intensive effort to overcome it.
Source: Devex
Global energy initiative aims to bring a billion people in from the dark
13/9/2019: A new global commission aims to end energy poverty in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia by driving investment in new technology .
Source: The Guardian