Here are five key takeaways from the Brief:

Accelerate renewable energy: There are significant obstacles in the renewable energy supply chain that hinder the pace and scale of the clean energy transition. The world needs to double down on the use of renewable energy sources to achieve net-zero, tackle energy poverty and boost and diversify the global energy mix. In the short-term, we must focus on demand management in developed countries to help bring down the aggregate demand and plan for winter without further increases in prices.

Efficient use of resources: In the medium-term, we must focus on reducing gas leakages. An estimated USD 90 billion in revenue could be earned by reducing natural gas flaring and methane leaks along the energy supply chain. By prioritizing combating energy waste, policymakers and producers can affect a quicker reaction to the current crisis than by scaling up new exploration and production.

Invigorate committed concessional capital: Investments disbursed by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the African Development Bank remain below 35 percent of commitments made. While the constraints vary by region, sector, and project, of the USD 36.3 billion committed since 2020, only USD 12.8 billion has been disbursed. This is a key constraint in creating the necessary enabling infrastructure, as well as advancing blended finance options to create a more supportive investment environment for private investment in clean energy. The green energy transition requires restructuring of public, private and multilateral finance to generate the required investment.

Leverage carbon pricing: Carbon markets are gaining traction as a crucial way of channeling finance to developing countries for clean energy use and carbon reductions. Government must employ effective carbon pricing which can take the form of progressive taxation, such as carbon, green, and fuel excise taxes. Developing countries will need significant support to achieve such transformations.

Scale up financing: Clean energy investments in emerging and developing economies declined to less than USD 150 billion in 2020, with only a slight rebound in 2021. About 70 percent of additional energy investments must occur in emerging economies in which finance is limited and capital remains more costly than in advanced economies. Sustainable debt markets can play an important role in bridging this funding gap and should be tapped to finance renewable energy sources, energy access and energy-efficiency technologies.

While there are significant obstacles, global collaboration towards accelerating the use of renewables through effective policies, finance mechanisms, and technology transfer will push us closer to our goals of ending energy poverty and achieving net-zero emissions.

Urgent action on cooling could protect nearly half a billion people

SEforALL is an international organization that works in partnership with the United Nations (UN), leaders in government, and others, to drive faster action on access to energy. Its Chilling Prospects report assessed 76 countries with cooling access challenges and found that, globally, 1.2 billion people do not have adequate access to cooling—threatening their ability to survive extreme heat, store nutritious food, or receive a safe vaccine. For the first time, Chilling Prospects forecasts access to cooling risks in 2030. It finds that current trends will leave more people at high risk at the end of the decade, but a pathway that delivers universal electricity access and ends extreme poverty by 2030 would reduce the number of people at high risk by 36 percent, or more than 450 million people.

Launched during a joint event with UNEP-led Cool Coalition the SEforALL Forum in Kigali, home to the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain, the report is a stark reminder that for millions of people, daily life cannot stop when temperatures hit heatwave levels. For those living below the poverty line or without access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy, their ability to adapt and thrive is held back without access to cooling. 

Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for SEforALL, said: “Cooling is a make-or-break issue for the Sustainable Development Goals and the environment. With one in every seven people at risk from life-threatening temperatures or broken cold chains, neither people nor the planet can afford inaction on sustainable cooling.” 

Dr Jeanne d'Arc Mujawamariya, Minister of Environment, Republic of Rwanda added: "Chilling Prospects once again provides exciting insights on major sustainable cooling developments. I am proud to showcase Rwanda’s innovative financing for consumers coupled with ambitions regulations for cooling appliances, as well as the comprehensive work of the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-chain that is headquartered in Kigali and pan-African in scope."

Disproportionate risk across the Global South and its megacities

Life on a warming planet means more extreme weather and a greater likelihood of devastating heat waves. In 2014, the World Health Organization predicted that 12,000 people would lose their lives annually due to heatwaves. Eight years on, we know the scale of the challenge is greater: new research for the Lancet shows that extreme heat caused the deaths of 356,000 people in 2019 alone.  

As confirmed by the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on Adaptation, the risks of heat extremes are even higher in cities. By 2050, 68 percent of the global population is expected to live in urban areas, with the number of megacities exceeding 10 million inhabitants expected to reach 43—many of these in developing regions. [1] In rapidly growing urban areas in Asia, Africa and Latin America, vulnerability for poor households is aggravated by air pollution, the urban heat island effect, limited access to good-quality built environment and key cooling infrastructure. 

Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said: “We need everybody acting under one vision to decarbonize the cooling sector by 2050. A vision of a world in which we keep our planet, homes and workplaces cool by combining the right technologies with the power of the natural world.” 

The risk is increasingly disproportionate, putting communities and individuals suffering from extreme poverty, who already struggle with access to nutritious food and adequate healthcare, most at risk from a lack of access to cooling. Solving the problem is an economic, environmental, and social challenge.  

But solutions exist:

• Across the Global South, powering health facilities with off-grid renewable energy and boosting efficiency of off-grid appliances would deliver reliable and cost-effective cooling in countries with electricity access gaps, but investment is needed now to realize this by 2030.
• Nature-based solutions such as tree planting help green urban areas and increase access to shade. 
• Technology-based solutions such as affordable, hyper-efficient air conditioners, well-designed buildings, and district cooling systems.

Investment to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals will save lives

Such solutions are vital to reach the UN’s SDG 7: Access to Affordable and Clean Energy, and investment and commitment is needed now. 

The SDGs are a set of 17 goals and 169 targets to wipe out poverty, fight inequality, and tackle climate change; they were adopted shortly before the Paris Agreement—the international treaty on climate change that aims to limit global warming to 1.5°C. They must be rolled out rapidly and at scale to save lives, but they must also be delivered in a sustainable way that ensures solutions - including for cooling - do not increase emissions, and therefore temperatures. 

Brian Dean, Head of Energy Efficiency and Cooling at SEforALL, highlighted the need to move swiftly on cooling solutions powered by sustainable energy sources: “Accelerating efficient and renewable-powered sustainable cooling devices and deploying passive and nature-based solutions to reduce need for active cooling will play a major role in decarbonizing the cooling sector and achieving SDG 7 by 2030.”

Damilola Ogunbiyi added: “The data shows that business as usual means there will be more vulnerable people by 2030, making our efforts to deliver SDG 7 and the Paris Agreement more challenging. In a warming world, both equitable economies and just, inclusive clean energy transitions rely on rapidly delivering sustainable cooling for all.
 
“We also need to rapidly shift to sustainable technologies, so access to cooling does not worsen global climate change. The good news is, many solutions already exist today to reduce risk, improve lives, and reduce emissions. And if we achieve universal electrification and end poverty by 2030, we will relieve almost 450 million people from extreme risks to their health and safety due to a lack of access to cooling. We must all commit to urgent action.”

[1] https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html