Low carbon energy and development in low-income countries

The document argues that market forces alone are insufficient to drive the uptake of low carbon energy in low-income countries and recommends that governments build 'innovation systems' through stakeholder networks, public market research, shared visions, and funded experimentation. These lessons are derived from the growth of Kenya's off-grid solar market, where an estimated 300,000 homes have PV systems and over 100,000 solar portable lights are in use.

• The growth of the off-grid solar energy market in Kenya was not driven by free market forces alone, but by activities from key actors and donor-funded projects that established an innovation system.
• To increase the uptake of low carbon technologies, policy should focus on building 'innovation systems' that link institutions capable of initiating, importing, modifying, and diffusing new technologies, while ensuring these networks are inclusive of the needs of poor people.
• Governments can foster technology markets through four primary interventions: building diverse stakeholder networks to identify capability gaps, conducting and publishing market research to reduce investor risk, fostering shared visions between users and suppliers, and funding experimentation to test technical configurations and build supply chains.
• National institutions, such as Climate Innovation Centres, can be used to implement these strategies, provided they are specifically designed for these goals and linked across countries to share best practices.

APA

Ockwell, D., & Byrne, R. (2014). Low carbon energy and development in low-income countries. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/STEPSsumLowCarbonDevA4.pdf

Chicago

Ockwell, David, and Rob Byrne. Low carbon energy and development in low-income countries. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2014. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/STEPSsumLowCarbonDevA4.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Ockwell |first1=David |last2=Byrne |first2=Rob |title=Low carbon energy and development in low-income countries |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=March 2014 |url=https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/STEPSsumLowCarbonDevA4.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ockwell2014low, author = {Ockwell, David and Byrne, Rob}, title = {{Low carbon energy and development in low-income countries}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2014}, month = mar, url = {https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/STEPSsumLowCarbonDevA4.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }