IEA: Boosting private investment in clean energy in emerging and developing economies

The IEA has published a report titled "Boosting Private Investment in Clean Energy in Emerging and Developing Economies". How emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) meet their growing energy needs will be critical to their and the world's energy and climate future. This group of countries covers a wide range of low- and middle-income economies, many of which suffer from severe shortages of reliable, affordable energy. 775 million people lack access to electricity and 2.4 billion lack access to clean cooking fuels, all of whom live in emerging markets and developing countries.

Currently, emerging markets and developing countries invest about $770 billion in clean energy each year, but most of this investment is concentrated in a few large economies. China accounts for two-thirds of this, and the top three countries (China, India and Brazil) account for more than three-quarters. The concentration of investment is shocking: China installed 100 GW of new solar photovoltaic power generation capacity in 2022.

Quantifying clean energy investment needs

To meet growing energy demand in a manner consistent with the Paris Agreement, annual public and private investment in clean energy in emerging and developing countries will need to more than triple by the early 2030s, from $770 billion in 2022 to $2.2-2.8 trillion per year, and remain near this level until 2050. Excluding China, the increase is even greater, equivalent to a seven-fold increase in annual investment, from $260 billion to $1.4-1.9 trillion.

Investment in clean electrification, grid infrastructure is the main component of the spending increase. In the case of meeting climate and sustainable development goals, by the early 2030s, more than one-third of total EMDE clean energy investment will be in low-emission power generation, mainly renewables. Another one-third needs to be spent on efficiency improvements and end-use sector spending. Less than a quarter is for grids and storage. About 8% is for low-emission fuels.

The cost of achieving universal access to electricity and clean cooking fuels by 2030 (SDG 7) is about $45 billion per year, less than 2% of total clean energy spending. Two-thirds of investments in electricity access need to be in Africa. About 60% of investments in clean cooking are needed in Asia.