Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2021 - Executive Summary

The executive summary of 'Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2021' analyzes energy finance commitments in 20 developing 'high-impact countries' (HICs) for 2019. It finds that investments for both electricity and clean cooking are critically insufficient to meet Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7), with electricity finance declining in 2019 and clean cooking investment stagnating. The report emphasizes the need for climate-resilient infrastructure, a shift away from fossil fuels, and a more comprehensive, multi-technology approach to clean cooking to ensure a just energy transition.

• Tracked finance for electricity in high-impact countries (HICs) decreased by 27% in 2019, falling to USD 32 billion from USD 43.6 billion in 2018. This decline is linked to project financing delays, lower capital costs per megawatt, and reduced commitments from financiers in India and China.
• Investment for residential electricity access in HICs is severely inadequate, reaching only USD 12.9 billion in 2019. This is less than one-third of the estimated USD 41 billion annual global investment required to achieve universal electricity access by 2030.
• Electricity finance shifted toward Paris Agreement-aligned solutions in 2019. Finance for grid-connected fossil fuels dropped from 50% of total electricity finance in 2018 to 25% in 2019, while transmission and distribution infrastructure finance reached its highest level since 2013.
• Finance for off-grid and mini-grid solutions remains a very small portion of electricity finance (0.9%) and declined from its 2018 peak. Bilateral and multilateral development finance institution (DFI) funding for this sector plummeted from USD 260 million in 2018 to USD 34 million in 2019.
• Clean cooking investment is chronically underfunded, with annual tracked commitments in HICs stagnating around USD 130 million between 2015 and 2019. This is far below the USD 4.5 billion annual investment needed for universal access.
• Private sector investment in clean cooking reached a record high of USD 56 million in 2019, increasing from USD 32 million in 2018. This investment targeted technologies such as ethanol, biogas, and LPG, though improved cookstoves (ICS) attracted no tracked private investment in 2019.
• Clean cooking is largely absent from national climate strategies; only 43 of the 165 countries that submitted Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the UNFCCC mention cooking or cookstoves, and only 12 of these are HICs.

APA

Sustainable Energy for All (n.d.). Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2021 - Executive Summary. https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2021-10/EF-2021-UL-ES-SEforALL.pdf

Chicago

Sustainable Energy for All. Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2021 - Executive Summary. n.d. https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2021-10/EF-2021-UL-ES-SEforALL.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Sustainable Energy for All |title=Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2021 - Executive Summary |url=https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2021-10/EF-2021-UL-ES-SEforALL.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{sustainableenergyforallndenergizing, author = {{Sustainable Energy for All}}, title = {{Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2021 - Executive Summary}}, institution = {Sustainable Energy for All}, url = {https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2021-10/EF-2021-UL-ES-SEforALL.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }