New SEforALL ‘heat maps’ to help focus for maximum impact towards 2030 goals

Sustainable Energy for All is creating new ‘heat maps’ as a tool to help focus resources for maximum impact across our three objectives on energy access, energy efficiency and renewables.

While every country matters – and within them all regions, cities and communities – the heat maps will offer a framework for identifying places where most needs to be done, and those where successes could be replicated elsewhere.

Conceived as part of SEforALL’s Strategic Framework for Results 2016-21, titled Going Further, Faster -- Together, the heat maps take as a starting point the wealth of data in SEforALL’s Global Tracking Framework (GTF), developed by a coalition led by the IEA and World Bank Group.

The GTF tracks access to electricity and non-solid cooking fuels, improvements in energy intensity and increases in the share of renewables in the energy mix. For each indicator, it identifies 20 “high-impact” countries where delivery will be critical to achieving the 2030 objective, and 20 “fast-moving” countries where exceptionally rapid progress can provide inspiration, know-how and learning.

For example, on electricity access the top 20 “high-impact” countries account for 0.9 billion of the 1.1 billion people currently without electricity, while the top 20 “fast-moving” have provided access to an additional 1.3 billion people over the past two decades.

The heat maps will also take into account countries that face particularly wide electrification gaps, as well as factors such as national development and climate change plans, the policy and business environment, and the availability of engaged donors and partners to support action.

Intended as living documents, to be updated as new information becomes available, the heat maps will help to build a robust process for prioritizing and shaping support for countries’ needs.