IRENA Assembly Urges Urgent Action For Universal Energy Access Amid Looming 7-Year Deadline

Leaders from across the globe converged in Abu Dhabi, spurred by the pressing need to confront the looming deadline of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) within the next seven years. At the forefront of discussions was Goal 7 – ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy – overseen by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) alongside other custodian agencies.

The 2023 edition of the SDG 7 Tracking Report, unveiled during the assembly, painted a stark picture: an estimated 660 million people are projected to still lack access to electricity by 2030. To bridge this gap and reach global energy targets, urgent action is imperative, necessitating a significant scale-up of finance, investment, and policy support.

Recognizing the critical role of public finance in addressing energy access needs, IRENA hosted a pivotal roundtable session during its 14th Assembly. This session aimed to pinpoint challenges and devise solutions in bolstering the role of public finance and policies in advancing energy access, coinciding with the United Nations’ global stocktaking of sustainable energy.

Government officials, development bodies, donors, businesses, and energy experts converged to explore collaborative pathways crucial for closing existing finance gaps. A seminal contribution to the discussion was IRENA’s unveiling of a new brief titled “Public Finance for Universal Energy Access,” offering policymakers and public financiers actionable insights to optimize public financing.

Raul Alfaro Pelico, Director of Knowledge, Policy, and Finance at IRENA, emphasized the importance of the brief in guiding public financing strategies, stating, “It maps the public financing needs across the whole energy access ecosystem and identifies instruments to channel public funds into the different solutions, through defined intermediaries.”

The brief identified priority areas for public finance, including electricity, productive use applications, and clean cooking. It underscored the need for targeted investments in electricity infrastructure and early-stage market development for clean cooking solutions.

Throughout the roundtable, participants delved into best practices and lessons learned, advocating for public finance to support research, local capacity building, and job creation within the energy sector. Moreover, discussions underscored the pivotal role of public finance in enhancing regulatory frameworks, de-risking investments, and ensuring affordability to drive tangible impacts on communities.

As Heike Henn, Director Climate, Energy and Environment at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), articulated, “Access to finance has to be affordable. Regulatory frameworks should make sure public finance’s role is enhanced, including to de-risk investments, so energy access projects can bring tangible impact to communities.”