For the first time in over a decade, the number of people living without electricity has increased, reaching 685 million in 2022. This signifies a worrying trend that population growth is outpacing new connections, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The 2024 Tracking SDG7 Energy Progress Report reveals significant strides and persistent gaps in our quest to provide affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030.
Although 91% of the global population has access to electricity, there was an increase of 10 million people without access compared to the previous year. A deeper look at the statistics reveals that 570 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa lack electricity.
Furthermore, while 74% of the global population has access to clean cooking technologies, 2.1 billion people still rely on polluting fuels, with only modest improvements anticipated by 2030.
Renewable energy accounted for 18.7% of total final energy consumption worldwide in 2021, a modest increase from 16.7% in 2015. This is deeply concerning given the significant strides that have been made in renewable energy costs, new technology applications, and accelerated improvements in renewable energy solutions.
What is deeply concerning is that, despite the progress made in recent years, the current pace is not adequate to achieve any of the 2030 targets for SDG7 which calls for affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.
See also: The future of energy and its impact on sustainable development
This calls for innovative solutions and greater financial support to achieve universal energy access. Here are our 4 action areas to accelerate SDG7 progress:
1. Increase investments in more countries
The 2024 Tracking SDG7 Energy Progress Report shows that in 2022, financial flows rebounded to USD 15.4 billion, a 25% increase compared to 2021. However, the distribution remains uneven, with 80% of these funds concentrated in just 25 countries.
Regionally, international public investment flows changed substantially between 2021 and 2022 in all developing regions except Sub-Saharan Africa. After four years of decline from the 2016 peak and a year of stagnation during the pandemic, flows increased substantially between 2021 and 2022 in most world regions, led by Latin America and the Caribbean (which showed an increase of nearly USD 2 billion), Western Asia and Northern Africa (up by nearly USD 1 billion). On the other hand, flows to Sub-Saharan Africa increased only modestly; those to Central Asia and Southern Asia decreased substantially (by nearly USD 1.2 billion); and those to Eastern Asia and South-eastern Asia also fell, but less dramatically.
If the world is to ensure that no one is left behind, significant investments must be made in emerging markets and developing countries with a special focus on low-income nations across the world.
2. Scale up decentralized renewable energy deployment
The 2024 Tracking SDG7 Energy Progress Report shows that the remaining population lacking electricity access has lower incomes and lives in more remote areas than those who have been newly connected over the past decade.
Numerous studies have shown that decentralized renewable energy can bring electricity to the difficult-to-reach rural locations where much of the remaining unconnected population lives. These decentralized solutions (including stand-alone systems in remote and sparsely settled areas) offer a cost-competitive alternative to grid expansion and can be rapidly deployed to meet levels of demand too low to justify grid investments.
In addition, the productive uses in rural communities, such as solar water pumps, refrigerators, agro-processing machinery, and a wide range of equipment for microenterprises, contribute to socioeconomic development and improve quality of life. Together, these can increase incomes and raise productivity, contributing to job creation, the emergence of new enterprises, and economic growth.
The global community must work together to provide the technical, financial, and policy support needed to turbo-charge decentralized renewable energy growth.
3. More investments are needed to ensure clean cooking
The 2024 Tracking SDG7 Energy Progress Report shows that the vast majority of low- and middle-income countries will miss the 2030 universal access target unless efforts are strengthened.
The good news is that there is growing momentum on the international agenda to advance clean cooking efforts, particularly in Africa, through various multilateral fora, such as G7, G20, and COP, and increasing financial commitments from countries and companies.
At the international level, there is an opportunity for greater collaborative efforts that focus on scalable and sustainable policies and interventions across governments, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, and communities that can raise investment in universal access to clean cooking.
At the country level, integrating clean cooking into the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) provides a structured pathway to strengthen efforts to reduce GHG emissions, improve air quality, benefit ecosystems, and protect health. By setting specific targets for clean cooking in NDCs, countries can demonstrate their commitment to public health and environmental sustainability and leverage resources and climate finance mechanisms to support these efforts and achieve their goals.
At the sub-national level institutional cooking, such as in schools and hospitals, would greatly benefit from clean cooking solutions. This would ensure that large-scale meal preparation emits less pollution, is more energy-efficient, and provides safe, nutritious meals to vulnerable populations to support better education and health outcomes.
This is why Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) and the World Food Programme (WFP) are implementing an innovative partnership focused on bringing clean and efficient cooking solutions to schools in Africa, helping them shift away from polluting and harmful cooking methods currently used for preparing student meals.
4. Innovative solutions and ambitious efforts are needed more than ever
More innovative financing instruments and initiatives are needed to support underinvested countries without compromising their fiscally constrained economies.
Within the wider public finance ecosystem, multilateral development banks, governments, and other relevant actors must work together to shift focus to underserved markets and reduce current inequalities.
For example, the World Bank Group and African Development Bank Group’s ambitious effort to provide at least 300 million people in Africa with electricity access by 2030, is particularly laudable.
So is the work of the Energy Compacts, championed by UN Energy and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) that have so far seen USD 1.3 trillion in commitments to support the achievement of SDG7 which has since 2021 seen 129 million people gain access to sustainable electricity and 22 million people gain access to clean cooking fuels and technologies.