How Climate Investors can Accelerate Energy Access in Africa

Source: · SHELL FOUNDATION · | April 22, 2021

New research highlights a $200bn market opportunity for climate-first investors to help achieve universal access to energy in Africa and avoid 626 m/t CO2e by 2030.

The climate crisis is the world’s greatest existential threat − but the race to reduce CO2e emissions and achieve global net zero is often perceived as at odds with the scale of economic growth needed to tackle poverty in emerging markets.

Robust research now disproves this tension. A recent study by Catalyst Off-Grid Advisors shows that the quickest and most affordable way to deliver inclusive economic growth in Africa is in fact to invest in ‘Decentralised Renewable Energy’ (DRE) solutions such as household solar systems, solar mini-grids and electric or LPG cookers for people who live on $2 to $10 a day.

This opens the door for a new wave of climate-first funders to support the DRE sector, a sector that has mainly focused on the social value of energy (improved income, health, education and resilience) for the 790 million people across the globe who live without electricity and the further two billion people who are denied sufficiently reliable, affordable power at home, at work, at school and for health and community services.

By contrast, ‘A Green Energy Future for Rural Africa’ outlines a $200bn opportunity for climate-first funders to avoid 626 m/t CO2e while delivering universal energy access in Africa by 2030 − helping to achieve several of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and global net-zero emissions by 2050.