The bottom line. The extension of electricity into rural areas has been the main focus of efforts
to achieve universal access to reliable, affordable, and modern energy by 2030. On the African
continent and elsewhere, however, rapid urbanization has produced new patterns of human
settlement that blur the distinction between rural and urban. As a case study of Kenya
demonstrates, access metrics aggregated at the rural or urban level do not equip governments
and their partners to properly identify or target sites for electrification. Spatialized frameworks
and data that define space along a rural–urban continuum or as urban catchment areas can
improve policy makers’ understanding of the specific barriers to access that communities face.
Spotlight Kampala is a multi-institutional research collaboration of universities and community advocates that aims to highlight the inequities that informal urban communities face in accessing and using electricity. This report presents the findings of eight months of data collection that included surveys, interviews, remote power quality monitoring, infrastructure mapping, and community forums across 25 of Kampala’s approximately 60 informal communities. This research aims not only to provide baseline statistics on important dimensions of access like access rates, affordability, supply reliability and quality, but also to ground these learnings in the daily lived experience of Kampala’s informal residents. In doing so, the research teams hope to bridge the divide between researchers and policymakers by providing data that is action-oriented, and can catalyze further action of duty-bearers to find solutions to alleviate urban energy poverty for Kampala’s informal communities. This report details the findings and recommendations which emerged from the research team’s collective work to characterize and address inequalities in electricity access in informal communities in Kampala. Although 95% of households and businesses are connected to the electricity grid in some way, the findings show clearly that a connection is not equivalent to electricity access. A number of barriers remain which prevent consumers from using electricity in ways that promise to improve their health, livelihoods, and overall well-being. For many, the conditions of energy access fall short of SDG 7.
Over one billion people globally are now estimated to live in slums or informal settlements.1 This population is growing as conflicts, natural disasters, and climate change fuel further displacement from rural areas. In sub-Saharan Africa, somewhere from 50-60% of the urban population of 200 million lives in informal communities that face structural barriers to securing legal access to the electricity grid.
For residents of informal communities who cannot afford the connection fee or provide required tenancy documents (among other barriers), the only viable alternative is to connect informally through a local electrician. Though an informal connection provides a marginal level of access to the grid, it engenders new vulnerabilities. Electricians and landlords, acting as de facto electricity retailers, can set their tariffs, physically restrict the time of day during which power is available, or limit the number and type of appliances used. Periodic enforcement raids from local authorities can mean hefty fines or jail time for those found with illegal connections.
Despite the enormous scale of un and under-served informal urban communities worldwide – and accelerating urbanization rates – their access challenges have remained outside the mainstream view of the Sustainable Development Goal 7 community working to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.” A poor understanding of how people connect to the grid and the limitations and drivers involved in their decision-making hinders efforts to improve access. The following insights are based on preliminary work by Spotlight Kampala – a research initiative aiming to offer actionable insight into access challenges in informal communities in Kampala.
Accelerating the rate of renewable energy deployment in Small Island Developing States is critical to reduce dependence on expensive fossil fuel imports and meet emissions reductions goals. Though many islands have now introduced policy measures to encourage RE development, the existing literature focuses on qualitative recommendations and has not sought to quantitatively evaluate and compare the impacts of policy interventions in the Caribbean. After compiling the first systematic database of RE policies implemented in 31 Caribbean islands from 2000 to 2018, we conduct an econometric analysis of the effectiveness of the following five policy interventions in promoting the deployment of RE: investment incentives, tax incentives, feed-in tariffs, net- metering and net-billing programs, and regulatory restructuring to allow market entry by independent power producers. Using a fixed effects model to control for unit heterogeneities between islands, we find evidence that net-metering/net-billing programs are strongly and positively correlated with increases in installed capacity of renewable energy - particularly solar PV. These findings suggest that the RE transition in the Caribbean can be advanced through policies targeting the adoption of small-scale, distributed photovoltaics.
Spotlight Kampala is a multi-institutional research collaboration of universities and community advocates that aims to shed light on the inequities faced by informal urban communities in accessing and utilizing electricity. Our data provides important baseline statistics on metrics of access like access rates, affordability, supply reliability and quality as well as an understanding of how community members perceive and navigate barriers to access. We aim not only to provide summary statistics, but to ground these learnings in the daily lived experience of Kampala’s informal residents. Community participation is a core objective of the work, with community members involved in each step of research design, execution, and dissemination. The project also focuses heavily on working closely with local stakeholders like the Government of Uganda's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, the utility Umeme Limited, and community-based organization like ACTogether Uganda and the National Slum Dwellers Federation of Uganda.
For more information and contact with the project team, visit the Spotlight Kampala website.
New analysis from University of California, Berkeley researchers finds that China is the only nation on track to triple its renewable capacity by 2030, a key goal for limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Amid continuing geopolitical tensions, climate change remains a key area of collaboration between the United States and China. Ahead of last November’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), Presidents Biden and Xi reaffirmed their commitment to work jointly—and together with other countries—to address the climate crisis and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Central to the agreement, now known as the "Sunnylands Statement,” is a commitment to supporting efforts to triple the global production of renewable energy by 2030. That goal, which is the only quantitative target in the agreement, was previously identified as a key target by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IREA) and agreed to by G20 leaders during their September 2023 meeting.
A study published today in Environmental Research Letters by UC Berkeley researchers finds that the global growth rate of renewable and low-carbon energy capacity is insufficient to meet this target. Using historical data from IRENA and the IEA, the authors project that China is by far the closest to triple its capacity by 2030, while the five remaining regions—the U.S., European Union, the African continent, Central and South America, and the rest of the world—will fall short.
“The climate crisis is now an emergency of inaction on a true energy transition,” said co-author Daniel Kammen, the James and Katherine Lau Distinguished Professor of Sustainability in the Energy and Resources Group (ERG), the Goldman School of Public Policy, and the Department of Nuclear Engineering. “While some specific policies and the actions of some nations show that a clean, green energy future can be achieved, we must be more systematic, holistic, and aggressive in our actions.”
China’s renewable energy capacity tripled during the last decade, a historic trend projected to continue through 2030. While developers of renewable energy projects in China may face difficulty securing financing and integrating their projects onto the grid, the country regularly surpasses its conservative targets and is more capable of leveraging other policies to facilitate necessary growth.
By comparison, the U.S. would need to significantly raise its renewable ambitions to achieve this target. The authors point to the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which authorized $369 billion in new government spending on clean energy and climate mitigation over the next decade, as one successful policy intervention capable of bringing the U.S. closer to its target. While they estimate that IRA-linked renewable energy projects will increase the domestic renewable energy capacity by a factor of 2 or 3, the U.S. would need to more than quadruple current projections to meet its stated targets.
“It’s heartening to see the exponential deployment of the past decade, and 2023 saw by far the biggest gains yet,” said co-author Ari Ball-Burack, a PhD student in ERG. “Moving forward, the U.S. and China have a responsibility to concretely facilitate renewables deployment worldwide.”
Co-author Xi Xi, a graduate student in ERG, notes that the greatest challenge the U.S. and China face will be facilitating and supporting efforts toward tripling renewable energy capacity elsewhere. Renewable energy deployment and power sector expansion are crucial to Africa’s sustainable development goals, yet so much of the continent’s energy development has been historically under-invested. The IEA estimates that more than $200 billion per year of investment by 2030 is required to achieve key energy goals and facilitate a just and inclusive climate transition. Comparable levels of investment are also needed in Central and South America and across the rest of the world.
“The U.S. and China operate within a global context and must proactively acknowledge and incorporate global perspectives, particularly from the Global South, and actively contribute to climate mitigation efforts worldwide,” she said.
The researchers assert that although the two countries’ joint declaration sets an optimistic framework with which to build lasting international climate cooperation, much work remains to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. They propose four actionable steps to ensure the Sunnylands tripling commitment is met:
The commitments must transform into delivered funds, with actionable plans to assemble and distribute funds committed to addressing challenges of climate mitigation and adaptation.
Subnational and informal collaborations between the two countries and the rest of the world should accelerate technology and knowledge transfer to provide appropriate, effective, and efficient solutions.
The two countries should prioritize collaboration over competition. A competitive mindset could hinder the development of globalized supply chains, significantly increasing renewables costs.
Fostering an inclusive and collaborative climate discourse internationally is crucial for a speedy, just transition toward the net zero world and can facilitate and accelerate reforms in multilateral institutions to ensure just and viable institutional and financial mechanisms for renewables development in the Global South.
Leading Scientists Warn Energy Permitting Reform Act Spells Climate Disaster
WASHINGTON— In a letter to Congress, more than 100 scientists warn that the Energy Permitting Reform Act, or EPRA, will worsen the climate crisis and harm community health. The bill, introduced by Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) in July, seeks to significantly expand fossil fuel extraction, infrastructure and exports within other provisions related to clean energy development.
The letter, co-signed by 118 scientific experts, says increases in carbon emissions from the bill’s fossil fuel buildout would undermine or even cancel out the potential emissions cuts from its renewable energy and transmission improvements. The letter urges Congress to oppose the bill.
“This bill is a Trojan horse for fossil fuel interests,” said Daniel Kammen, Ph.D., Lau Distinguished Professor of Sustainability at the University of California, Berkeley. “The potentially modest emissions reductions don’t come close to justifying the guaranteed explosion of emissions from fossil fuel exports. When we’ve got back-to-back superstorms battering the Southeast, we have to be clear about the guaranteed fossil fuel fiasco this bill represents.”
Global greenhouse gas emissions will increase as more U.S. fossil fuels are extracted and exported overseas, undercutting domestic emissions decreases in the power sector due to replacement by renewables.
“The climate crisis demands an immediate and rapid reduction in greenhouse emissions globally, so it is not enough to reduce emissions domestically while exporting our emissions footprint abroad,” the letter says.
By failing to account for the full lifecycle of emissions from fossil fuel exports, modeled results claiming emissions benefits of the EPRA are likewise misleading and undercut by planned and pending fossil fuel infrastructure projects. The United States is already the world’s top exporter of fossil gas and petroleum products, a trend that would be further locked in under the bill.
The EPRA would mandate additional fossil fuel leases on tens of millions of acres of public lands and hundreds of millions of acres of offshore waters. It would expedite approvals for LNG gas export projects and additional coal leasing on public lands with enormous consequences for the climate. For example, five major LNG projects that would likely proceed because of the bill would result in annual greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 165 coal-fired power plants.
The bill’s fossil fuel buildout would come at the expense of people’s health and welfare. Fossil fuel infrastructure, including additional LNG export facilities, would cost billions in additional health costs every year, with harms largely centered on Black and Latino communities in the U.S. Gulf Coast region.
In face of the recent record-setting heat wave that tested California's power grid, experts attributed the state's success to its commitment to renewable energy and called for collaboration with China to accelerate the path to a fully clean electricity grid.
California has set aggressive targets for renewable energy adoption, with state law requiring 90 percent of all retail electricity sales to come from renewable sources by 2035 and 100 percent by 2045. To meet those ambitious goals, the state is turning its attention to offshore wind power.
"In California, we have zero offshore wind today ... right now, China is far ahead of the US on the offshore wind industry," Daniel Kammen, a professor of energy at the University of California, Berkeley, and director of its Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, said.
California has designated two zones for offshore wind farms — one in Humboldt Bay in the north, and another in central California. "Offshore wind is exciting because it can be permitted more quickly and serves as a 'battery' for the grid," Kammen said.
Offshore wind can complement the production cycles of solar and on-land wind energy. That characteristic is particularly valuable, as solar production quickly diminishes when the sun sets, requiring system operators to replace those megawatts with other sources in real time to maintain grid stability.
It also offers flexibility in energy production, capable of generating electricity during peak demand and producing hydrogen or methanol during periods of low electricity prices. That flexibility presents huge opportunities to decarbonize sectors that have traditionally been difficult to transition to clean energy, Kammen said.
The state can directly apply some of China's practices, he said. "The best way to apply it is not just to read about it, but to actually get partners from China."
California has already taken such steps by inviting engineering groups from Norway. The state is also exploring opportunities in fuel cells, hydrogen production and other offshore renewable energy sources, such as tidal and wave power. Those areas promise rich opportunities for knowledge exchange and collaboration with Chinese partners, who have wide experience in the fields, Kammen added.
California and China have a history of partnership in developing clean energy technologies.
Kammen, however, stressed the need to accelerate the collaborations. He highlighted his own partnerships with research colleagues at Tsinghua University and North China Electric Power University, as well as with Chinese companies such as Geely.
"We want to build more of those teams so that we can move quickly when the politics let it happen," he said.
Gaining momentum
Despite tensions at the national level, locality cooperation between China and the United States has gained momentum recently.
"I think the conference may give you the best example," said Richard Dasher, director of the US-Asia Technology Management Center at Stanford University, referring to the 2024 Global Green Development Summit at his university on the weekend.
The summit, held by the Global Green Development Alliance, brought together climate and energy experts, as well as business leaders from both countries to discuss "energy transition and innovation for carbon neutrality".
Companies must provide solutions that are both economically viable and attractive to consumers, Dasher said.
Kammen emphasized the need for a combination of Silicon Valley's innovative mentality and the large-scale industrial capacity of entities such as China's State Grid and the State Grid Electric Vehicle Service.
He pointed to the productivity of new companies and university offshoots as evidence of the potential for collaborative innovation with Chinese companies.
US, China cooperate on green energy in rural areas
By MINGMEI LI in New York | Xinhua |
Innovation in rural area-green energy development and boosting collaboration between the United States and China in science and technology are being emphasized at a "smart village" forum.
More than 50 experts, professors, local entrepreneurs, environmental and social organizations from many countries are participating in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Smart Village Forum (ISV) in Shanxi province on Sunday and Monday.
Participants in the forum, titled "Green Low-Carbon and Smart Village", discussed environmental governance topics such as achieving energy transition, using advanced technology to assist poverty-stricken regions globally in accessing affordable and clean energy, improving energy efficiency, and promoting green and sustainable development.
A new demonstration project in Changzhi, a city in southeast Shanxi province, was featured at the forum, showcasing the current progress and practical results achieved by ISV. The project has effectively incorporated solar photovoltaic power and clean-heating technologies and products for residents.
The ISV working group has partnered with leading Chinese and international higher-education institutions to create energy models and projects suited to specific local conditions in other cities such as Chongqing, Gansu and Heilongjiang.
Daniel Kammen, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and energy professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and his laboratory, have worked closely with scholars and students from Tsinghua University, Chongqing University and North China Electric Power University to research renewable energy conservation and intelligent models from an academic perspective.
"We develop mathematical models of the grid. There's lots of interesting physics. There's lots of interesting science. My partnerships in China have been very productive," Kammen told China Daily. "Low-cost solar, better batteries and smart sensors. We build models that become real. My laboratory is very much based around not just basic science, but also the mission of decarbonizing the power grid and making our economy green.
"Just like the tensions that existed between the Soviet Union and the US over politics and geopolitics in the '70s and '80s, one lesson that I think scientists learned on both sides, both in the Soviet Union and in the US, is that we need to keep the scientific channels open," he said.
Kammen said that science cooperation and exchange are important at this moment. "The US and China are the G2. I like to say we are the G2 of energy, the two biggest consumers of energy and the two biggest polluters in terms of greenhouse gases," he said. "There is no climate solution unless the US and China find ways to work through their differences."
"This is a technology exchange and a global need. We are working on clean energy under climate change and fulfilling the need for decarbonization," said Xiaofeng Zhang, the vice-president of ISV and president of Global Green Development Alliance.
The ISV has extended its efforts not only within China but also across diverse regions, including Africa, Latin America, South Asia and North America, with the primary focus on delivering eco-friendly and cost-effective energy solutions to underprivileged communities who have limited access to environmental resources.
"We are doing more than only energy transferring, but also internet, electrical machinery, telecommunications and telemedicine. We introduce all of these based on the community's needs," said Rajan Kapur, the president of ISV. "We ask the community what they want to do, and based on that, we tell them what technology might be appropriate, what technology can be locally sourced."
ISV is also collaborating with Chinese local companies and organizations.
"It is also a business-development cooperation, because when you take technology and introduce it into society, you cannot just drop it over there," he said. "The capacity does not exist to use the technology; the infrastructure does not exist. So we also help with the business modeling, the governance of the enterprises that get set up," he said.
Kapur said that what they are trying to do is to have a long-term impact, and ISV has not only created scientific and business models in those regions but also has deployed supportive equipment for more than 20 or 30 years.
He emphasized that ISV's ultimate objective is to ensure affordable and clean energy access for 1 billion people worldwide through technology and cooperation between the US and China.
Additionally, ISV expects to leverage its resources to assist local communities and businesses in achieving sustainable economic growth and regionwide improvements.
"What we should remember is that it is advancing technology for all of humanity," Kapur said.
