Sida's work with sustainable energy
Access to energy is crucial to people’s ability to improve their lives and escape poverty. To reduce climate emissions, energy needs to be sustainable. Sida works to increase people's access to sustainable energy, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
Progress has been made
Increased access to electricity
Since 2010, the number of people without access to electricity has decreased by over 400 million.1
Increased knowledge about climate change
Awareness of how fossil fuels contribute to climate change has increased over recent years. More and more people realise that we must expand our sustainable energy systems and transition from using fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Globally, the percentage of renewable energy is increasing every year, albeit slowly. Renewable energy is now cheaper to produce than fossil-fueled energy in some parts of the world. The price of electricity from solar energy has decreased by 85 percent since 2010.2
Challenges remain
Slow development of electricity networks
According to the global goals, everyone should have access to electricity by 2030, but today the development is too slow. This is especially true in countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The population increase is expected to lead to more than 500,000 people still being without electricity by 2030.3
High electricity tariffs are a problem for those living in poverty, not least in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the cost of electricity is often above the global average.
The energy sector accounts for two thirds of all emissions from fossil fuels (coal, petrol and natural gas). Greenhouse gas emissions cause climate change, which in turn threatens ecosystems and risks forcing people from their homes and land.
Sida's work on sustainable energy
Globally, some 760 million people still lack access to electricity, most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. One third of the world’s population depends on firewood, charcoal and biomass to cook and heat their houses.4 It leads to diseases that cause about four million deaths each year.5
The lack of energy and fuel also leads to conflicts, deforestation and the destruction of ecosystems. Women and children are at risk of violence when collecting firewood.
Providing people with access to energy systems that are sustainable from both a health and environmental perspective is a prerequisite for sustainable development.
Once people have access to energy, it becomes easier to improve their quality of life. Hospitals can provide better care and schools better education, people can communicate with one another with greater ease and obtain important information. Electricity creates greater opportunities for people to support themselves. Cooking over an open fire also leads to air pollution and negative climate impact. Progress has been made but development is slow.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of the population lacks access to electricity. Through Power Africa, Sida is increasing access to sustainable energy sources. This is done, among other things, through support for companies that sell energy services from small-scale solar energy plants. In 2020 alone, just over 200,000 households were connected. Sida also provides loan guarantees to companies. Sida’s loan guarantees act as insurance for the lender: if the borrower is unable to repay his debt, the lender will still get back part of the money. The loan guarantees are there to make it easier for companies to survive the covid crisis.
The existing electricity grids in many of Sida’s development cooperation partner countries are far from efficient, leading to unnecessary energy consumption and expensive electricity. Improving the efficiency of existing energy systems is an important measure both to ensure future access to sustainable energy and to reduce climate impact. Since 2010, Sida cooperation with countries in eastern Europe has contributed to the green-lighting of 36 projects to improve energy efficiency. In total, it is estimated that these projects will result in a reduction in annual emissions of up to one million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
In rural Zambia, most households lack electricity. Through Beyond the Grid Fund for Zambia, Sida supports an investment in renewable energy in the country. When the fund provides financial security, more energy companies dare to establish themselves in a new market or increase the production of renewable energy. Among other things, access to electricity makes it easier for children and young people to study and increases the opportunity to make money, for example through the sale of electrical goods and services such as charging mobile phones. The investment is now also available in Liberia, Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Uganda.
In many of Sida’s partner countries, energy systems are inefficient. Streamlining the existing energy systems is important to secure access to sustainable energy in the future and reduce climate impact.
In Eastern Europe, Sida has since 2010 supported some forty projects for increased energy efficiency, which contributes to carbon dioxide emissions being reduced by just over one million tonnes annually (corresponding to just over 2 percent of Sweden’s annual emissions of carbon dioxide equivalents).
A major obstacle to the energy sector becoming more sustainable in Sida’s partner countries is that knowledge and capacity to plan, regulate and decide on sustainable projects are limited. This leads to potential investors not getting involved, and countries lose important financing. Sida’s capacity building program for renewable energy aims to train officials in Sida’s partner countries to increase the use of renewable energy. Sida has a long-standing collaboration with the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP), which aims to increase sustainable energy planning in developing countries. Sida is also pushing for the World Bank to invest more in sustainable energy.
During 2020, Sida paid grants to support sustainable energy to the tune of approximately SEK 900 million. The majority of this support went to renewable energy supply and electricity distribution. This work is primarily governed by 15 African strategies, the global strategy for a sustainable environment, climate and oceans, and the strategy for the sustainable use of natural resources and cooperation in Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans.
- Statistics number of people lacking access to electricity on the World bank webpage
- Cost of renewable energy 2020 on the International Renewable Energy Agency´s webpage
- Number of people without access to electricity on the Sustainable Energy for All´s (SEA) webpage
- Share depending on charcoal, wood or bio mass to cook on the SEA webpage
- About air pollution on the WHO webpage, text from September 2021
Updated: November 23, 2021