Working to Boost Energy Access and Reduce Emissions in 12 Countries

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Since its launch at COP26, the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) has accelerated clean energy solutions to support economic development and climate priorities across 12 countries on multiple continents, with plans to expand to seven more countries next year.

Highlights of GEAPP’s strong first year include:

• Committed over $350 million to catalyze additional development and commercial finance. GEAPP’s investment of $40M in five initiatives alone is accelerating an additional $630M in development capital.
• Partnered with governments in 12 countries, soon to be 19, advancing their national agendas for better energy access, faster decarbonization, jobs growth and economic development.
• Widened the Alliance with the addition of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), thus increasing the Alliance to 19 partners and aligned co-investment capacity to $11.5bn.
• Released its inaugural impact report, Powering People and Planet, with initial focus on robust impact methodology and updates on 2022 country programs.

The Alliance was formed in 2021 to catalyze clean energy technologies and new pools of finance to bring reliable, livelihood-enhancing energy to the nearly 3.6 billion people who lack it. Working with developing countries, the Alliance seeks to foster collaboration and speed in harnessing the considerable human and financial resources needed to reduce energy poverty while combating climate change.

GEAPP has already made important strides toward the goals of increased energy access, reduced emissions, and enhanced livelihoods. In all, building on the projects of its philanthropic founders, it has:

• Added more than 245,000 new or improved energy connections
• Impacted over 1 million lives
• Enabled 25 MW renewable energy capacity
• Averted or avoided 117,000 tons of carbon

“It is unacceptable that half our global population still does not have access to reliable energy that is essential for healthy lives and productive livelihoods,” said Jonas Gahr Støre, Norway’s Prime Minister and co-chair of GEAPP’s Global Leadership Council. “New clean energy projects in 2021 produced a quarter of the electricity needed to end energy poverty, except nearly all of this occurred in developed economies. We must move faster and find innovative new models when business-as-usual is not effective. Norway is glad to be working with GEAPP. I invite more to partner with us.”

The Alliance is now operating in 12 countries across Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Sierra Leone, and Uganda); Asia (India, Indonesia, and Myanmar) and Latin America (Haiti and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico). Following its first Call for Country Partnerships at COP26, the Alliance is commencing work with Vietnam, Bangladesh, Benin, Burundi, Colombia, Pakistan, and Panama.

Heads of state for Alliance country partners emphasize the need for urgent action across national and regional borders to increase energy access in ways that address the global imperative to reduce carbon emissions.

“Malawi urgently needs to address its energy access challenges for our people, in line with our socioeconomic transformation agenda and Vision 2063,” said Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, President of the Republic of Malawi. “We are working closely and swiftly with GEAPP and already deriving benefit from the Alliance’s support of our government delivery capacity; piloting large-scale battery storage to stabilize the intermittency of our renewables; and energizing our agro-industry to improve livelihoods and jobs. We welcome the memorandum of understanding signed today for the installation of a utility-scale grid-integrated battery energy storage system for grid stabilization. ”

Head of the Presidential Climate Finance Task Team in the Presidency of the Republic of South Africa, Daniel Mminele, said, “The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet was formed just last year and has quickly got to work with South Africa. We value our relationship with GEAPP and appreciate the way in which it has embraced South Africa’s Just Transition, providing early and important support to help us build our capacity.”

Rania A. Al-Mashat, Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation, said, “it is time for all stakeholders to move from pledges to implementation, which is why Egypt welcomes GEAPP’s total focus on action and outcomes with the already rapid deployment of capital and technical assistance to achieve real climate and development outcomes in this critical decade.”

“The dual problems of energy poverty and decarbonization form the defining challenge of our time,” said Simon Harford, GEAPP’sCEO. “GEAPP has moved fast in our first 12 months to launch replicable models that apply technology and innovation, support entrepreneurship, deploy targeted risk capital, and address obstacles to viable private sector solutions. We applaud governments focused on the effective delivery and enabling environments needed for energy investment. Together with our Alliance partners we are determined to be innovative in driving progress for better access and more clean energy. This is just the beginning, and we are committed to building successful long-term partnerships across the Alliance that jointly deliver concrete outcomes. We invite others impatient for progress to join us in scaling clean energy that is at the heart of development, livelihoods and growth.”

The majority of the people living without any access to energy today are in Africa, which only received 1.1% of total wind and solar capacity deployed in 2021. Some highlights of GEAPP’s work here in 2022 include:

• South Africa. Supporting across government to advance the country’s Just Energy Transition (JET) agenda. This includes coordinated government delivery capacity; supporting the Presidential Climate Commission’s critical work building broad societal support; and partnering with public utility Eskom to launch its Komati Renewable Energy Training Facility, the first to support the training and transition of coal-fired power station workers to new clean energy jobs.
• Ethiopia. Working with the government and Alliance partners to increase demand and support productive use of electrification, by deploying renewables in rural areas to grow jobs, livelihoods and entrepreneurship; and launching the DREAM initiative, which is building the first solar mini-grid-powered large-scale irrigation systems in Africa to provide farmers with reliable and affordable irrigation.
• Nigeria. Working with the government and Alliance partners across multiple initiatives to create systemic improvements in the energy sector, including bespoke financing to the off-grid sector; delivery capacity to implement Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan; improving private sector investment with the launch of an innovative local currency financing facility; reducing the cost of clean energy technology via an innovative pooled procurement solution.

To illustrate its first year’s work and priority to measure its impact outcomes, the Alliance is today publishing its first impact report, Powering People and Planet. The report highlights that, should energy-poor countries pursue development with fossil-fuels rather than scale renewables, they would produce 75% of the world’s carbon emissions by 2050. It also identifies that universal energy access can be achieved with clean energy sources, a path that would reduce emissions in energy-poor countries by 58% while also significantly growing local economies. Contrary to some perceptions, clean energy solutions are now often the cheapest available power sources – while also being swifter to install than fossil fuel-powered generation. Future Alliance impact reports will track progress of initiatives and their outcomes for energy access, reduced carbon emissions and enhanced livelihoods.

Per Heggenes, CEO of IKEA Foundation
“The IKEA Foundation is proud of the tangible progress GEAPP has made during its first year, as it seeks to reduce emissions, expand energy access and create jobs around the world. Confronting the climate crisis will require unprecedented collaboration between governments, philanthropies, development finance institutions and the private sector. GEAPP is already demonstrating the positive results of such collaboration. This decisive decade for climate action will require all of us to do even more to protect our planet and we hope others will join us on this initiative.”

Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation
“Every day, we see proof that when renewable energy innovations are accessible and affordable, countries and communities can avert carbon emissions, slowing the climate emergency while enabling people to pursue opportunity in the 21st century economy. As the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet enters a second year of changing energy for good, we invite more partners to join us in mobilizing capital and accelerating the adoption of these technologies where they are needed most — in emerging and developing economies.”

Andrew Steer, President and CEO of Bezos Earth Fund
“Energy-poor countries account for only 25% of global CO2 emissions today, but this could rise to 75% by 2050 without support from the global developed community. That’s why the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet is bringing a new approach to alleviate energy poverty, piloting innovative business and market solutions, finance, and other approaches that can be applied at scale across the developing world and beyond. Helping developing countries shift to a clean energy model will lead to cleaner air, reduced carbon emissions, reliable energy, new jobs, and building a more equitable future society. It’s not only the right thing to do, but it’s in everyone’s best interests to work together to reach our critical climate goals in this decisive decade.”

Masatsugu Asakawa, President of the Asian Development Bank
“As Asia and the Pacific’s climate bank, ADB is working with GEAPP to catalyze broader clean energy access and a just energy transition, in countries such as Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Vietnam. The decarbonization of power systems—including by accelerating the retirement of fossil fuel power plants and developing cleaner, renewable sources of energy—is critical for meeting the Paris Agreement targets. We are looking forward to pursuing several innovative and scalable transactions with GEAPP.”

Werner Hoyer, President of European Investment Bank
“To achieve global climate goals and boost economic development we must increase access to clean and affordable energy. As the EU climate bank, the EIB aims to support more than one trillion dollars of green investment by the end of this decade. Through EIB Global, our dedicated arm for operations outside the European Union, we are committed to support GEAPP’s mission by working with our partners from Team Europe and across the world to mobilize finance for the green energy transition of developing and emerging economies.”

Nick O’Donohoe, Chief Executive of the UK’s British International Investment
“Providing affordable, clean energy to hundreds of millions of people living in emerging economies is vital – both from a development perspective and in the fight to combat the impacts of the climate emergency that are already being acutely felt today.”

James Scriven, CEO of IDB Invest
“We are very proud of our close collaboration with GEAPP seeking to implement accessible and renewable energy for all. The private sector of Latin America and the Caribbean has the right conditions, the passion, and it has proved to be a nursery of innovative ideas. The challenge has been to find soft resources to pilot and test, as well as take to scale these ideas, accompanying that process with expertise on the local context. That’s where IDB Invest is crucial. The region has the potential to do much more. Taking advantage of natural resources, expertise and partnerships like this, it can become one the world’s leading renewable energy hubs.”

Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and Special Representative to the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All
“For more than 700 million people without electricity and 2.4 billion people without access to clean cooking solutions, energy poverty is a daily reality that impacts every aspect of their lives. Lack of energy also keeps us from achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals, including climate action – which impacts us all. Sustainable Energy for All is excited to continue our collaboration with the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet to unite current efforts on energy, climate and development, put people at the heart of the energy transition, and ensure a path to a better future for all.”

Mark Carrato, U.S Agency International Development (USAID) – Coordinator, Power Africa

“The Alliance is providing valuable means and frameworks for implementation, and recognizes that ending energy poverty and achieving climate goals are vital, mutually supporting endeavors.”

Jon Creyts, CEO of RMI
“GEAPP is a critical leader among the world’s most important sustainable energy initiatives and has the power to improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people. RMI is honored to be a key member of the Alliance as a strategic implementing partner across GEAPP and RMI’s focus geographies to advance our shared goals for job creation, energy access, and carbon reduction.”

The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) is an alliance of philanthropy, entrepreneurs, governments in emerging and developed economies, and technology, policy, and financing partners. Our common mission is to support developing countries’ shift to a clean energy, pro-growth model that ensures universal energy access and unlocks a new era of inclusive economic growth, while enabling the global community to meet critical climate goals during the next decade. In doing so, as an Alliance we aim to enable 150 million sustainable livelihoods, reduce 4 gigatons of future carbon emissions, and expand clean energy access to one billion people. With philanthropic partners IKEA Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Bezos Earth Fund, GEAPP works to build the enabling environment, capacity, and market conditions for private sector solutions, catalyze new business models through innovation and entrepreneurship, and deploy high-risk capital to encourage private sector solutions, and assist just transition solutions. For more information, please visit www.energyalliance.org and follow us on Twitter at @EnergyAlliance.