Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2019

The report finds that while electricity finance reached a record USD 36 billion in 2017, it remains far below the USD 51 billion annual requirement for universal household access, with only one-third benefiting residential users. Clean cooking finance saw a severe decline, dropping 73 percent to USD 32 million in 2017. Sub-Saharan Africa remains critically under-invested, and the report highlights a lack of targeted funding for vulnerable groups, particularly women and displaced persons.

• Finance for electricity in the 20 high-impact countries (HICs) reached a record USD 36 billion in 2017, but this is significantly below the estimated annual requirement of USD 51 billion needed for universal household access by 2030. Only USD 12.6 billion, or one-third of the total, is estimated to have provided residential access.
• Investment in clean cooking experienced a sharp decline, falling to USD 32 million in 2017, which represents a 73 percent decrease compared to the 2015-2016 annual average of USD 117 million. This is far below the estimated annual investment requirement of USD 4.4 billion.
• Sub-Saharan Africa is characterized by severe under-investment. While total electricity finance for 13 analyzed African countries rose to USD 9.6 billion in 2017, this was primarily due to a single USD 5 billion hydropower plant in Nigeria; ten countries in the region each received less than USD 300 million.
• Grid-connected renewable energy dominated electricity finance, accounting for 61 percent of all tracked funds, with India driving much of the increase in solar PV investments. Conversely, investment in grid-connected fossil fuel plants decreased to USD 6.6 billion in 2017, with 60 percent of coal financing (USD 5.6 billion) provided by the Export-Import Banks of India and China for projects in Bangladesh.
• Investment in off-grid solutions and mini-grids (OGS) remains a very small portion of total electricity finance, representing only 1.2 percent (USD 430 million) in 2017. Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda together accounted for 56 percent of this total.
• Finance for clean cooking shifted toward private sources, which accounted for 66 percent of tracked finance in 2017 (approximately USD 21 million), while international public finance dropped to 33 percent (USD 10.6 million). Kenya received the majority of this finance, attracting over USD 20 million.
• Energy finance is not sufficiently targeted toward vulnerable groups. In 2017, only 7 percent of the USD 14 billion in annual official development assistance (ODA) for energy activities in developing countries was specifically targeted to benefit women.

APA

Sustainable Energy for All (2019). Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2019. https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2019-10/EF-2019-UL-ES-SEforALL.pdf

Chicago

Sustainable Energy for All. Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2019. 2019. https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2019-10/EF-2019-UL-ES-SEforALL.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Sustainable Energy for All |title=Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2019 |date=2019 |url=https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2019-10/EF-2019-UL-ES-SEforALL.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{sustainableenergyforall2019energizing, author = {{Sustainable Energy for All}}, title = {{Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2019}}, institution = {Sustainable Energy for All}, year = {2019}, url = {https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2019-10/EF-2019-UL-ES-SEforALL.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }