Three perspectives frame this challenge paper: 1) energy is at the very core of sustainable development, and not just a sector among others; 2) the combined challenges of inadequate access to energy among the world’s poor, the imperative to avoid climate catastrophe and the need to deal with rising and volatile energy prices require an unprecedented, fundamental transformation of the world’s energy system, and 3) that there are technological solutions that already exist that can effectively tackle these challenges over the course of 10-15 years.
The wide development benefit from access to modern energy services, specifically electricity, implies this is a vital social investment. As such increase access to modern energy services should not be assessed on just the financial costs and benefits alone, but rather a framework that takes into account the multiple additional benefits and/or costs of different energy sources. This paper argues that it is not simply access to energy services that matters, but how that access is delivered from the planning, installation and operation stage. Further, the authors propose a bold, transformative approach to set up a global programme of national feed-in tariffs formulated by UN-DESA and supported by an increasing number of organisations. This paper argues that:
- Public policies can help produce a decline in the global price of renewable energy that will make it affordable within a decade.
- A “big push” in investment to scale up renewable energy will lead to rapid cost reduction, technology improvement, and learning by doing.
- This will generate a “virtuous cycle” of additional investment, economic growth, employment generation, etc.
- In the first decade, investments will have to be subsidized through globally funded guarantees or price supports (e.g. feed-in tariffs). The “virtuous cycle” will then make renewable energy the default option for new energy investment worldwide.
- Price supports will be complemented by a global extension program: research, technical, and policy support designed to accelerate the process.