The world added renewable energy capacity at a record pace and pushed clean electricity generation above 30 percent of global supply, yet 655 million people still lived without electricity in 2024 and roughly two billion lacked access to clean cooking technologies.
The latest Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report highlights a widening disconnect between global energy transition milestones and the pace of energy access improvements in the regions most affected by energy poverty.
Global electricity access remained stagnant at 92 percent in 2024, according to the report, marking a significant slowdown from the previous decade. Annual growth in access has fallen by half, raising concerns that the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) target of universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy by 2030 is increasingly out of reach.
The challenge is particularly acute in Sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 560 million people remain without electricity. While many developing regions are approaching universal access, electrification progress in Africa has failed to keep pace with population growth. The report notes that the rural electricity access deficit in Sub-Saharan Africa expanded from 376 million people in 2010 to 447 million in 2024, underscoring the scale of the infrastructure and affordability challenge.
To meet the 2030 target, the annual rate of progress must accelerate to 1.3 percent, approximately three times the current pace. That requirement arrives amid growing fiscal constraints, rising debt burdens, and persistent financing gaps across many low income economies.
The clean cooking sector presents an even larger challenge. Around one quarter of the global population continues to rely on polluting fuels such as charcoal, wood, coal, and kerosene. While 89 percent of urban residents have access to clean cooking solutions, the figure falls to just 56 percent in rural areas. Without stronger policy intervention, an estimated 1.8 billion people could still be dependent on traditional cooking fuels by 2030.
The health implications remain severe. Household air pollution linked to these fuels contributes to approximately three million deaths annually. Sub-Saharan Africa again stands out as the region facing the greatest challenge, with the number of people lacking access to clean cooking projected to reach one billion by 2027.
At the same time, renewable energy deployment continues to expand rapidly. Renewables now account for more than 30 percent of global electricity consumption, while renewable generation capacity reached a record 544 watts per person globally. These figures demonstrate substantial momentum in clean power deployment, but they also reveal significant inequalities in how renewable infrastructure is distributed.
Low income countries had only 33.6 watts of renewable generating capacity per person in 2024, compared with 1,224 watts per person in high income economies. Such disparities suggest that global renewable growth alone is insufficient to guarantee energy access improvements in regions with limited investment capacity.
This imbalance has broader implications for energy security. Recent disruptions in global fuel markets exposed the vulnerability of countries heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels. According to the report, expanding domestic renewable generation is increasingly viewed not only as a climate strategy but also as a tool for improving economic resilience and reducing exposure to external supply shocks.
Distributed renewable energy systems are emerging as one of the most practical pathways to close access gaps. Off grid solar systems and mini grids already serve hundreds of millions of people and are often more cost effective than extending centralized grids into remote or sparsely populated regions. Similar diversification is occurring in clean cooking, where electric cooking technologies, bioethanol, and biogas are gaining traction as scalable alternatives.
Yet infrastructure alone is not the primary barrier in many markets. Affordability remains a persistent obstacle even where electricity networks exist. Connection fees, household wiring costs, and ongoing electricity expenses frequently prevent low income households from accessing available services. The report identifies targeted subsidies, innovative financing structures, and least cost electrification planning as critical tools for addressing this challenge.
Financing remains one of the most significant constraints across all SDG 7 indicators. International public financial flows supporting clean energy in developing countries rose only marginally from $24.4 billion in 2023 to $24.6 billion in 2024. More concerning is the decline in support for the world’s poorest nations. Financial flows to least developed countries fell 11 percent year over year to $3.7 billion.
The composition of this financing also raises questions about long term sustainability. Approximately 80 percent of international public clean energy finance in 2024 was debt based, while grants represented just 13 percent. Equity investments and risk guarantees accounted for only 2 percent and 5 percent, respectively. For countries already facing elevated borrowing costs and debt pressures, the continued reliance on debt financing may limit the effectiveness of international support mechanisms.
Energy efficiency, often viewed as the least costly pathway for reducing energy demand and emissions, is also falling behind required targets. Global progress in energy intensity improvement slowed from 2.4 percent in 2022 to 1.5 percent in 2023. Although overall energy intensity reached 3.76 megajoules per U.S. dollar of economic output, the pace remains insufficient to align with SDG 7 objectives.
The report’s findings suggest that the primary challenge facing SDG 7 is no longer technological readiness. Renewable technologies continue to expand, costs have declined substantially over the past decade, and distributed energy solutions are increasingly proven at scale. Instead, the gap increasingly reflects shortcomings in financing structures, affordability mechanisms, and policy implementation, particularly in countries facing the highest levels of energy poverty.
