Energy Poverty Impacts Three Billion People. Time to Think Big.
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All Nations Need a High-Energy Future to Power Industrial and Commercial Development, Job Creation and Economic Growth.
But Small-Scale Solutions to Energy Poverty Can’t Build Competitive Economies. So the Hopes and Security of Billions are at Risk.
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PostRose Mutiso on TED: The energy Africa needs to develop — and fight climate changeRose Mutiso outlines how African countries need more energy, not less, to fight climate change and deserve the majority of the world's carbon budget to exercise their right to opportunity at the 2020 TED Countdown Conference. Watch her talk (6:42) here, or below: Learn More
ReportGoing Big on Power Africa: Fortifying the Initiative for Today's Urgent Challenges10 Recommendations to enhance Power Africa’s impact on energy poverty, economic development, and climate change The US Government’s Power Africa initiative grew out of a bipartisan commitment to addressing energy poverty.Learn More
MemoIndonesia’s Power Goals: What’s next after universal electrification?The world’s fourth-most populous country is rapidly reaching universal electrification, with almost 99% of its more than 270 million people considered electrified. However, the sector is not without its problems. A major outage hit the greater Jakarta area in mid-2019, affecting over 30 million people and paralyzing the economy, while shorter blackouts are a common occurrence.Learn More
MemoMapping Africa's approaches to power sector reformOver the past 30 years, many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have introduced market-oriented reforms geared at addressing structural obstacles to power sector development.Learn More
Recent Posts
MemoDo major DFIs finance fossil fuels?
Development finance institutions (DFIs) help catalyze and direct investment in emerging economies. Their policies toward particular energy technologies and fuel sources therefore influence development trajectories.Continue Reading
MemoWhat could the Mambilla Dam do for Nigeria?
The Mambilla Hydropower project will be a complex of four dams and two underground stations in the eastern Nigerian state of Taraba.Continue Reading
BlogThe Biden Climate Finance Plan: What’s great and what we’re watching closely
On April 22nd, the Biden administration released its Climate Finance Plan, which aims to scale-up financial resources to help developing countries reduce greenhouse emissions, increase resilience, and adapt to climate impacts.Continue Reading
ReportCongressional Testimony: U.S. Policy Options to Support Climate Justice and Prosperity in Africa
Watch the US House of Representative's Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing, "The Effects of Climate Change in Africa" and read the full transcript of Todd's testimony below. Testimony before the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Global Human Rights Thank you Chair Bass, Ranking Member Smith, and other members of the Subcommittee.Continue Reading
MultimediaEpisode #2 Zainab Usman: What Does Net-Zero Mean for Africans?
The new director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Africa Program on why resource curse thinking is wrong, politics is integral to policy & we should stop saying “leapfrogging.” Zainab Usman is the inaugural Director of the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.Continue Reading
MultimediaEpisode #1 Mohamed Rali Badissy: Power-Sector Transparency & Energy Access
Mohamed explains why transparency is an overlooked issue in addressing energy poverty, why he thinks decarbonization will increase public demands for more energy transparency, and the one crucial thing about energy poverty nobody’s talking about. Mohamed Rali Badissy is an Assistant Professor of Law at Penn State Dickinson Law, where his research focuses on the interplay between energy regulation and private investment.Continue Reading
BlogTen reasons for optimism in the fight against energy poverty and climate change
It’s easy to feel daunted by the overlapping (and overwhelming) challenges of simultaneously ending energy poverty and tackling the climate crisis.Continue Reading
MultimediaRose Mutiso on Energy Thinks Podcast
Hub Board member Tisha Schuller meets with Rose Mutiso to discuss the important and the unique considerations for Africa’s energy future in the context of global decarbonization (45:05). Listen below or on Energy Think's podcast page here.Continue Reading
MemoLighting the Way: Nighttime Lights for Electrification Planning
Data is often scarce when it relates to the development of electricity infrastructure in emerging economies. Using geographic information system (GIS) databases has become standard practice,1 but information digitization, data collection, and aggregation at scale can be costly and take years.Continue Reading
BlogInfographic: Visualizing Africa’s emissions and poverty in the world
How we aggregate global data affects how we talk about it, and -- more importantly -- what we do about it.Continue Reading