SDG 7 at a Crossroads: Navigating the Post-Pandemic Energy Landscape

Executive Summary

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development established Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) to "ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all," recognizing energy as the bedrock of economic progress, social equity, and environmental sustainability. For the first five years of its implementation, the global community made tangible, albeit uneven and insufficient, progress. However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 triggered an unprecedented shock to the global energy system, acting as a significant brake on, and in some cases a reversal of, this pre-existing momentum. This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the progress toward SDG 7, with a specific focus on the profound and multifaceted impact of the pandemic.

The analysis reveals three core consequences of the crisis. First, for the first time in a decade, progress on energy access reversed. The number of people living without electricity increased by 10 million in 2022, primarily driven by an acute affordability crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa, where millions of newly connected households could no longer pay for basic energy services.1 The long-standing challenge of clean cooking access, which affects over 2 billion people, was exacerbated as economic hardship forced many to revert to polluting biomass fuels.3

Second, the pandemic severely disrupted clean energy supply chains and investment flows, slowing the pace of the energy transition. While existing renewable energy assets demonstrated remarkable operational resilience during the demand shock of 2020, the growth of new capacity faltered due to construction delays and a record 20% drop in global energy investment.4 The subsequent economic rebound was highly energy-intensive, leading to a significant setback for energy efficiency improvements.1

Third, the pandemic dramatically amplified pre-existing regional inequalities. Sub-Saharan Africa, already facing the most significant energy deficits, bore the brunt of the setbacks across all targets. The massive fiscal stimulus packages deployed globally were overwhelmingly concentrated in advanced economies, with 90% of recovery funds relevant to SDG 7 being mobilized in the developed world.6 This has created a two-speed recovery, widening the gap in clean energy infrastructure and investment between the global North and South.

The pandemic exposed systemic fragilities in the global energy system and in the approaches to achieving SDG 7. The crisis fundamentally shifted the energy access challenge from one of mere connection to one of sustained affordability. It highlighted the vulnerability of globalized clean energy supply chains and underscored the critical need for scaled-up international financial cooperation. While the post-pandemic landscape is fraught with macroeconomic challenges, the recovery phase presents a critical, albeit narrow, window of opportunity to realign policy and investment with the 2030 Agenda. Seizing this opportunity will require unprecedented political will, innovative financing, and a renewed commitment to multilateralism to ensure a just and equitable energy transition for all.

Table 1: Global SDG 7 Progress Dashboard: Pre- vs. Post-Pandemic

Indicator

Pre-Pandemic Status (2019)

Post-Pandemic Status (2022)

Pandemic Impact/Change

Required Annual Progress to Meet 2030 Target

Population without electricity access

759 million 8

685 million 1

Reversal in 2020/2022; number increased for the first time in a decade 1

1.08% point increase in access rate per year 1

Population without clean cooking access

2.6 billion 8

2.3 billion (2021) 10

Stagnation; affordability crisis pushed many back to biomass 3

~300 million people gaining access per year 3

Modern renewable energy share (in TFEC)

~11.7% (est. from 2021 data)

12.5% (2021) 1

Slowed deployment in 2020; rebound in 2022, but still off-track 4

Substantial acceleration, especially in heat and transport 1

Annual energy intensity improvement

1.9% (2010-19 avg.) 2

0.8% (2021) 1

Major setback due to energy-intensive recovery 1

~4% per year 1

International financial flows (public)

$10.9 billion 2

$15.4 billion 1

Still only half the 2016 peak; stimulus inequity is stark 1

Significant increase, especially for LDCs, LLDCs, and SIDS 1

Note: Data points are for the specified year or the closest available year from the sources. TFEC stands for Total Final Energy Consumption. The 2022 electricity access figure reflects a slight improvement from the 2022 peak deficit.

I. Introduction: The Global Mandate for Affordable and Clean Energy

The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015 marked a global consensus on the indivisible nature of development, peace, and environmental stewardship. Central to this framework is Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7), which establishes a universal mandate to "Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all".10 This goal is not merely an isolated objective within the energy sector; it is the central nervous system of modern society, a critical and indispensable enabler for the achievement of nearly every other Sustainable Development Goal.

Defining SDG 7 and its Architecture

The architecture of SDG 7 is built upon a set of five distinct yet interconnected targets, each measured by specific indicators that provide a quantitative framework for tracking global progress. These targets address the multifaceted challenges of the global energy system, from fundamental access to the quality and sustainability of energy sources and the efficiency of their use. The successful implementation of this framework is monitored by a consortium of custodian agencies, including the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO).6

Table 2: The Architectural Framework of SDG 7

Target

Official Target Description

Corresponding Indicator(s)

7.1

By 2030, ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services.

7.1.1: Proportion of population with access to electricity. 7.1.2: Proportion of population with primary reliance on clean fuels and technology.

7.2

By 2030, increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.

7.2.1: Renewable energy share in the total final energy consumption.

7.3

By 2030, double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency.

7.3.1: Energy intensity measured in terms of primary energy and GDP.

7.a

By 2030, enhance international cooperation to facilitate access to clean energy research and technology, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and advanced and cleaner fossil-fuel technology, and promote investment in energy infrastructure and clean energy technology.

7.a.1: International financial flows to developing countries in support of clean energy research and development and renewable energy production, including in hybrid systems.

7.b

By 2030, expand infrastructure and upgrade technology for supplying modern and sustainable energy services for all in developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing States, and land-locked developing countries, in accordance with their respective programmes of support.

7.b.1: Installed renewable energy-generating capacity in developing and developed countries (in watts per capita).

Source: United Nations Statistics Division.1

The Centrality of Energy in Sustainable Development

Energy is not an end in itself but rather a means to achieve broader human development and well-being. Its role as a "great enabler" creates profound interlinkages that cut across the entire 2030 Agenda.

• Poverty and Economic Growth (SDG 1 & 8): Access to energy is a fundamental prerequisite for poverty alleviation and economic development.13 It powers businesses, enables modern agriculture, supports communication and transportation, and creates jobs, thereby forming the engine of economic growth.16 Without reliable energy, economies remain trapped in low-productivity cycles.

• Health (SDG 3): The link between energy and health is direct and critical. Reliable electricity is essential for powering healthcare facilities, operating medical devices, enabling life-saving procedures, and maintaining the cold chains necessary for vaccine distribution.16 Simultaneously, the lack of access to clean cooking fuels and technologies (Target 7.1.2) constitutes a persistent global public health emergency. The burning of solid fuels like wood and charcoal in inefficient stoves causes severe household air pollution, which is responsible for millions of premature deaths annually, disproportionately affecting women and children who bear the primary burden of cooking.10

• Education (SDG 4): Energy access transforms educational opportunities. Electricity provides lighting for children to study after dark, powers computers and digital connectivity for modern learning, and improves the quality of educational facilities, which helps to attract and retain teachers, particularly in remote and rural areas.17

• Climate Action (SDG 13): The global energy system is the dominant source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, a rapid and just transition to clean and renewable energy sources, as mandated by Target 7.2, is the single most important action required to mitigate climate change and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.19

This deep integration reveals a fundamental paradox: while SDG 7 is foundational to achieving other goals, its own progress is highly dependent on advancements in those same areas. For instance, achieving SDG 1 (No Poverty) and SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) is a prerequisite for solving the energy affordability crisis that now plagues Target 7.1. The COVID-19 pandemic laid this relationship bare, as economic shocks and income loss directly reversed progress on electricity access, not because infrastructure disappeared, but because millions could no longer afford to pay for the service.2 This creates a vicious cycle where a lack of energy access hinders poverty reduction, and persistent poverty prevents sustainable energy access, a cycle that policy must be designed to break.

II. The Pre-Pandemic Trajectory: A World in Transition, but Off Pace

To comprehend the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential to first establish a clear baseline of global progress toward SDG 7 as of year-end 2019. The narrative of the pre-pandemic era (2015-2019) was one of tangible gains but also of growing concern. The world was in transition, but the pace of change was uneven and ultimately insufficient to meet the 2030 targets. This left the global energy system highly vulnerable to the systemic shock that was to come.

A Decade of Gains in Electricity Access (Target 7.1.1)

The most significant success story in the SDG 7 agenda was the expansion of electricity access. Between 2010 and 2019, more than a billion people gained access to electricity, raising the global electrification rate from 83% to 90%.8 The absolute number of people living without electricity fell from 1.14 billion in 2010 to 759 million in 2019.8 This achievement was overwhelmingly driven by rapid progress in Asia. Central and Southern Asia, in particular, made remarkable strides, reducing their collective access deficit from 235 million people in 2015 to just 33 million by 2022.1

However, this headline success masked underlying fragilities. The global progress was highly concentrated in a few large, populous countries, creating a misleading global average that hid a deepening crisis elsewhere.8 The reliance on these high-achieving nations meant that as they approached universal access, the global rate of progress was bound to slow, revealing the profound lack of momentum in other regions. By 2019, the access deficit was becoming increasingly and overwhelmingly concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa, which was home to three-quarters of the world's unelectrified population.8 Projections from that period already indicated that, without a significant acceleration, the world was on a trajectory to miss the 2030 target, with an estimated 660 million people remaining in the dark.8

The Stagnation of Clean Cooking (Target 7.1.2)

In stark contrast to electricity access, progress on clean cooking was alarmingly stagnant. In 2019, approximately 2.6 billion people—one-third of the global population—still relied on polluting and inefficient fuels and technologies for cooking, such as wood, charcoal, coal, or kerosene.8 The rate of improvement was so slow that in many regions, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa, it was failing to keep pace with population growth, meaning the absolute number of people without access was actively increasing.8

This pre-existing divergence between progress on electrification and clean cooking points to a systemic bias in global policy and investment. Electrification often involves large-scale, centralized infrastructure projects that are attractive to governments and major financiers. Clean cooking, conversely, requires decentralized, household-level solutions that depend on complex last-mile distribution networks, consumer financing mechanisms, and sustained behavioral change campaigns.23 This has made it a "harder" and less visible problem to solve, resulting in it being chronically underfunded and deprioritized in national and international development agendas.

Steady but Insufficient Growth in Renewables (Target 7.2)

The share of renewable energy in the global energy mix was growing steadily, but not substantially enough to meet the 2030 ambition. The share of modern renewables in total final energy consumption (TFEC) rose gradually, reaching 12.5% in 2021 (excluding the traditional, unsustainable use of biomass).1 The electricity sector was the clear leader in this transition, where falling costs for solar PV and wind power led to impressive gains in deployment.1 However, this created a significant imbalance, as progress in the heat and transport sectors—which together account for the majority of final energy consumption—lagged far behind.1

Lagging Improvements in Energy Efficiency (Target 7.3)

The goal to double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency was also off track. From 2010 to 2019, the global annual improvement in primary energy intensity—a key measure of how efficiently energy is used to generate economic output—averaged around 1.9%.2 This was significantly below the 2.6% annual improvement targeted by SDG 7.3, indicating a persistent failure to decouple economic growth from energy consumption at the required rate.

International Financial Flows (Target 7.a)

A critical enabler for progress, especially in the most vulnerable countries, is international financial support. Worryingly, international public financial flows to developing countries in support of clean energy were already on a downward trajectory before the pandemic. After peaking at $28.5 billion in 2016, these flows had fallen significantly, standing at just $10.9 billion in 2019.1 This pre-existing decline in financial support weakened the resilience of developing countries' energy sectors and limited their capacity to accelerate the transition, leaving them more exposed to the economic crisis to come.

III. The Systemic Shock: COVID-19 and the Unprecedented Disruption of Global Energy

The COVID-19 pandemic represented the biggest shock to the global energy system in more than seven decades, dwarfing the impact of the 2008 financial crisis.24 The implementation of lockdowns, travel restrictions, and the ensuing economic downturn triggered a series of unprecedented disruptions that rippled through every facet of energy demand, supply, and investment, fundamentally altering the trajectory of SDG 7.

A Historic Collapse in Global Energy Demand

In 2020, global energy demand fell by 4%, the largest percentage decline since World War II and the largest ever in absolute terms.25 This drop was approximately seven times greater than the decline recorded during the 2009 global financial crisis, underscoring the sheer scale of the disruption.26 The impact on demand was directly correlated with the stringency of public health measures; the IEA estimated that every month of a full global lockdown reduced annual energy demand by about 1.5%.24 Electricity demand was set to decline by 5% in 2020, while overall CO2 emissions were projected to fall by a historic 8%—a reduction driven not by sustainable policy but by economic paralysis.24

The Asymmetric Impact on Fuels

The demand shock did not affect all energy sources equally.

• Fossil Fuels: Demand for fossil fuels collapsed. Oil was the hardest-hit, with demand plummeting by 9% over the year as mobility and aviation ground to a halt.25 At the peak of the lockdowns in April 2020, global oil demand was more than 20% below pre-crisis levels.25 Coal demand fell by 4%, squeezed by lower overall electricity demand and increasing competition from cheaper natural gas and resilient renewables.25

• Renewables: In a stark and telling contrast, renewable energy was the only source that saw its consumption grow in 2020, increasing by 3%.25 This remarkable resilience stemmed from two key factors: low operating costs and priority access to electricity grids in many markets. When overall electricity demand fell, more expensive and flexible fossil fuel plants were the first to be scaled back, while wind and solar power, with their near-zero marginal costs, continued to generate electricity. This resulted in the share of renewables in the global electricity supply reaching a record high of nearly 28% in the first quarter of 2020.4

Shifting Consumption Patterns

Lockdowns triggered a massive and abrupt shift in energy consumption patterns. As industrial and commercial operations were curtailed, their energy demand plummeted. Simultaneously, with billions of people confined to their homes for work, school, and leisure, residential energy demand surged.26 While the reductions in the commercial sector far outweighed the increases in residential use, this shift placed new and different strains on energy infrastructure, particularly local electricity distribution grids.26

Disruption of Supply Chains and Investment

The pandemic revealed a crucial paradox: while existing renewable energy assets proved highly resilient in their operation, the growth of new renewable capacity proved highly vulnerable to the economic and logistical shocks. The crisis caused severe disruptions to global clean energy supply chains, which are highly dependent on manufacturing concentrated in specific regions, notably China.30 Factory shutdowns and shipping delays led to significant postponements in the construction and commissioning of new wind, solar, and other clean energy projects.28

This logistical disruption was compounded by a financial one. Global energy investment experienced its largest fall on record in 2020, dropping by 20%, or nearly $400 billion, compared to 2019 levels.5 This created a massive investment deficit at a time when funding needed to be accelerating to meet the 2030 goals. The 2020 demand shock, therefore, served as an inadvertent, real-world stress test of the global energy system. It offered a glimpse of how grids could operate with much higher shares of variable renewables, providing invaluable data for the future transition.33 However, it also exposed the fragility of the transition's pace, which is critically dependent on stable global supply chains and consistent investment flows—both of which were shattered by the pandemic.

IV. A Target-by-Target Assessment: The Pandemic's Toll on SDG 7 Progress

The systemic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic translated into specific, quantifiable setbacks across all of SDG 7's core targets. The economic and social fallout not only halted momentum but, in the critical area of energy access, reversed a decade of hard-won progress. The post-2020 data paints a stark picture of the pandemic's toll and the steepened climb to the 2030 finish line.

7.1 - Universal Energy Access: A Decade of Progress Reversed

Electricity (7.1.1): The most alarming impact of the pandemic on SDG 7 was the reversal of progress in electricity access. For the first time in a decade, the number of people living without electricity increased. After falling to 759 million in 2019, the number of unelectrified people rose, peaking in 2022 before declining slightly to 685 million.1 This reversal was not primarily a failure of infrastructure deployment but a crisis of affordability. The economic devastation wrought by the pandemic meant that up to 30 million people in Africa and Asia who had previously gained access could no longer afford to pay for their basic energy needs, effectively pushing them back into energy poverty.2 This fundamentally redefined the access challenge, shifting the focus from the capital expenditure of connection to the operational challenge of sustained, affordable service delivery. The annual rate of progress on electrification slowed dramatically, falling to an average of just 0.4% between 2020 and 2022, far below the 1.08% annual increase now required to meet the 2030 target.1

Clean Cooking (7.1.2): The pandemic exacerbated an already dire and stagnant situation. The number of people relying on polluting cooking fuels remained stubbornly high, at 2.3 billion in 2021.10 The economic shock, combined with disruptions to supply chains for cleaner fuels like Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), forced millions of households to revert to using traditional, polluting biomass such as wood and charcoal.3 With lockdowns forcing families to spend more time at home, this reversion likely intensified exposure to harmful household air pollution, worsening the associated health crisis, particularly for women and children.5

7.2 - Renewable Energy: A Story of Delayed Growth and Uneven Recovery

While the operational resilience of renewables in 2020 was a positive sign, the pandemic's disruption to supply chains and construction schedules led to a 13% decline in new renewable capacity additions that year compared to 2019.4 Although deployment rebounded strongly in subsequent years, with 2022 seeing record capacity additions as delayed projects came online 12, the pandemic effectively created a "lost year" of growth, making the long-term targets more difficult to achieve. The crisis also reinforced the imbalance in the transition. While renewable electricity continued to grow, progress in renewable heat and transport biofuels was hit hard by low fossil fuel prices and the sharp reduction in industrial and transport activity, making them less cost-competitive.4

7.3 - Energy Efficiency: A Missed Opportunity and a Setback

Progress on energy efficiency suffered a major setback. Global primary energy intensity improved by a mere 0.8% in 2021, a figure drastically below the 2.6% target and even lower than the pre-pandemic five-year average of 1.2%.1 This poor performance was a direct consequence of the nature of the post-pandemic economic recovery. The robust rebound in 2021 led to the largest annual rise in energy consumption in 50 years, a surge driven by a global shift back towards energy-intensive industries as economies reopened.1 Furthermore, investments in energy efficiency were projected to fall by 10-15% in 2020 as construction activity, vehicle sales, and purchases of efficient appliances all slackened, further impeding progress.4 To get back on track, annual improvements must now average around 4% through 2030—a rate rarely achieved historically.1

7.a & 7.b - Finance and Infrastructure: A Widening Investment Gap

The pandemic widened the already vast investment gap for clean energy in the developing world. International public financial flows, which were already declining pre-pandemic, remained insufficient. While they recovered to $15.4 billion in 2022, this was still only half of the 2016 peak of $28.5 billion.1

More critically, the massive fiscal stimulus packages mobilized by governments to counter the economic crisis were overwhelmingly concentrated in advanced economies. Of the approximately $710 billion in recovery funds identified as relevant to SDG 7, an astonishing 90% was appropriated in advanced economies.6 Emerging markets and developing countries, constrained by limited fiscal space and mounting debt, mobilized far less. This "stimulus inequity" has created a dangerous feedback loop, accelerating the energy transition in wealthy nations while leaving developing countries further behind. This threatens to lock in global energy inequality for years to come, creating a two-speed world that undermines the universal ambition of SDG 7 and widens the gap in installed renewable capacity, which in 2022 stood at 1,073 watts per capita in developed nations versus just 293 in developing countries.1

V. The Widening Divide: Regional Disparities in the Pandemic's Aftermath

The COVID-19 pandemic did not impact all regions equally; instead, it acted as a great amplifier of pre-existing vulnerabilities and inequalities within the global energy system. The crisis fell hardest on the regions that were already furthest behind, leading to a significant widening of the gap between energy-poor and energy-rich parts of the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa: The Epicenter of the Setback

Sub-Saharan Africa, already home to the world's largest energy access deficits, became the epicenter of the pandemic-induced setbacks. The region's progress was not just slowed but thrown into reverse.

• Electricity Access: In 2020, for the first time in recent history, the number of people in Africa without access to electricity increased.7 The region's share of the global population without electricity jumped from 71% in 2018 to 77% in 2020.2 By 2022, Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for a staggering 83% of the world's unelectrified population.1

• Clean Cooking Access: The deep-seated clean cooking crisis in the region worsened considerably. Progress was already lagging behind population growth, and the pandemic's economic pressures pushed more households back to reliance on traditional biomass. The region's access deficit continued to grow and now surpasses that of any other region in the world.1 In seven countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, fewer than 10% of the population had access to clean cooking fuels and technologies in 2021.1

This devastating impact was the result of a compounding of vulnerabilities. Households in the region were more likely to suffer income loss, making them unable to afford electricity or modern fuels. National governments, facing severe fiscal constraints and rising debt, had limited capacity to provide social safety nets or stimulus. And the energy systems themselves, often characterized by less reliable infrastructure and a higher dependence on imported fuels and components, were more susceptible to supply chain disruptions.30

Developing Asia: A Story of Resilience and Slowdown

While also affected by the pandemic, key regions in developing Asia demonstrated greater resilience, though progress inevitably slowed. Central and Southern Asia continued to make headway on electrification, successfully reducing their access gap from 235 million people in 2015 to just 33 million in 2022.1 This resilience can be attributed to strong, pre-existing policy momentum and sustained government focus. Countries like Bangladesh, which had pursued integrated energy access strategies combining grid, mini-grid, and off-grid solutions, managed to achieve universal electricity access even during the pandemic period.9

However, this resilience was not uniform across all targets. The region remains home to 1.1 billion people without clean cooking access, representing half of the global deficit.3 This highlights that even in regions with notable successes, immense challenges persist, and that progress on one energy target does not automatically translate to others.

Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), and Small Island Developing States (SIDS)

These groups of particularly vulnerable countries were disproportionately affected by the pandemic's economic fallout. Their high dependence on international support made them especially susceptible to the decline and insufficient recovery of international public financial flows for clean energy.1 The disruption of global supply chains for decentralized energy solutions, such as solar home systems and mini-grids, which are often the most viable and cost-effective options for reaching remote populations in these countries, further hampered their progress.36

Table 3: Regional Disparities in Energy Access Deficits (2019 vs. 2022)

Region

Population without Electricity (Millions, 2019)

Population without Electricity (Millions, 2022)

Population without Clean Cooking (Millions, 2019)

Population without Clean Cooking (Millions, 2021)

Sub-Saharan Africa

~570 million (est.)

~570 million (est.)

~900 million 8

~923 million (est.)

Central & Southern Asia

~70 million (est.)

33 million 1

~700 million (est.)

~650 million (est.)

Eastern & Southeastern Asia

~40 million (est.)

~30 million (est.)

~750 million (est.)

~670 million (est.)

Latin America & Caribbean

~17 million (est.)

~15 million (est.)

~80 million (est.)

~75 million (est.)

Note: Figures are based on data from custodian agency reports.1 Some figures are estimated based on regional deficit shares and global totals for comparability across years. The 2022 electricity deficit in Sub-Saharan Africa reflects a stabilization after an increase in 2020/21.

This disaggregated data makes the concentration of the crisis undeniable. While Asia continued to reduce its deficits, the absolute number of people without access in Sub-Saharan Africa remained stubbornly high for electricity and grew for clean cooking, starkly illustrating the pandemic's role in widening the global energy divide.

VI. The Path to 2030: Challenges and Imperatives in a Post-Pandemic World

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally reshaped the landscape for achieving SDG 7. The final decade of action is now characterized by amplified challenges, a steeper trajectory required for success, and a heightened sense of urgency. The crisis, while devastating, also created a unique focusing event, exposing systemic weaknesses and creating a potential opening for transformative change. Navigating this new reality requires a clear-eyed assessment of the challenges and a bold commitment to a set of strategic imperatives.

The New Landscape of Challenges

The path to 2030 is now beset by a formidable set of post-pandemic headwinds.

• Macroeconomic Constraints: The global economic environment is marked by high inflation, currency volatility, and acute debt distress in a growing number of developing countries.37 These conditions severely constrain the fiscal space of governments to invest in clean energy infrastructure and provide necessary subsidies, while also increasing the risk profile for private investors.

• The Amplified Investment Gap: The setbacks and lost time during the pandemic mean that achieving the 2030 targets now requires an even more dramatic acceleration of investment. Credible estimates suggest annual investment needs of around $45 billion for energy access, $680 billion for renewable energy, and $625 billion for energy efficiency.5 Current financial flows represent only a fraction of these required sums, and the gap is widest in the countries that need it most.

• Policy and Institutional Inertia: The crisis underscored that "business-as-usual" policy approaches are wholly inadequate.39 However, overcoming institutional barriers, integrating energy planning into broader economic recovery frameworks, and implementing difficult reforms like phasing out fossil fuel subsidies remain immense political challenges.5

Nations now face a difficult "trilemma" in trying to simultaneously balance three competing priorities: ensuring energy affordability for citizens facing economic hardship, maintaining energy security in a volatile geopolitical landscape, and accelerating the clean energy transition to meet climate goals. Policies designed to address one corner of this trilemma can easily undermine another, such as fossil fuel subsidies that support affordability but directly harm the transition. The central challenge of the post-pandemic era is to find integrated solutions—such as scaling up domestic renewables, which can enhance security, lower long-term costs, and advance climate goals simultaneously.

Strategic Imperatives and Opportunities

Despite the challenges, the post-pandemic era presents a critical window for strategic action.

• "Greening" the Recovery: The need to stimulate economic recovery provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to "rebuild better" by embedding clean energy, energy efficiency, and resilience at the core of national recovery plans.40 A globally coordinated green recovery stimulus could significantly close the emissions gap and accelerate progress toward SDG 7.42

• Breaking "Carbon Lock-in": The shock to the global energy system has the potential to break the inertia of fossil-fuel-based economies.31 The price volatility of fossil fuels, exposed first by the pandemic and then by geopolitical conflict, strengthens the economic case for the price stability and energy security offered by domestically sourced renewable energy.31

• Scaling Up International Cooperation and Finance: The crisis has made it clearer than ever that SDG 7 cannot be achieved without a massive increase in targeted international financial flows. This must go beyond traditional aid to include concessional finance, risk-mitigation instruments to leverage and mobilize private capital, and technical assistance to build resilient, local clean energy supply chains and manufacturing capacity.1

A Multi-Layered Recommendation Framework

Achieving SDG 7 in the post-pandemic world requires concerted action from all stakeholders. Technology and finance alone are not enough; the greatest barriers are often institutional and political. The pandemic did not create these problems, but it made their consequences starkly visible. Therefore, the most critical imperative is a fundamental reform of the institutions that govern energy policy and finance to prioritize sustainability, equity, and resilience in all future decisions.

For National Governments in Developing Countries:

1. Integrate SDG 7 into National Recovery Plans: Elevate energy access and the clean energy transition to central pillars of post-pandemic economic strategy, recognizing their role in job creation, resilience, and long-term growth.5

2. Focus on Affordability and Social Protection: Design and implement intelligent tariff structures, targeted subsidies, and social safety nets to protect the poorest households from energy price volatility and prevent further reversals in energy access.44

3. Create Investable Policy Environments: Strengthen and clarify regulatory frameworks, streamline permitting processes, and ensure policy stability to attract the private investment essential for scaling up renewables and efficiency.16

For Developed Countries and International Financial Institutions:

1. Dramatically Increase and Target Financial Flows: Urgently meet and exceed existing climate finance commitments, with a specific focus on grants and highly concessional loans for LDCs, LLDCs, and SIDS to support SDG 7 implementation.1

2. Support a Just and Equitable Transition: Provide dedicated funding and technical assistance to help developing countries manage the socio-economic shifts associated with moving away from fossil fuels, ensuring that no communities are left behind.5

3. De-risk Private Investment: Use public funds catalytically through blended finance mechanisms, guarantees, and other risk-mitigation instruments to lower the perceived risk for private sector investment in emerging clean energy markets.41

For the Private Sector:

1. Innovate in Business and Financing Models: Develop and scale new models for delivering decentralized energy solutions, particularly for clean cooking, that incorporate affordable consumer financing and sustainable service delivery.30

2. Invest in Supply Chain Resilience and Diversification: Work with public sector partners to diversify manufacturing hubs for clean energy components and build more localized supply chains to reduce vulnerability to future global shocks.30

Works cited

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