The 2021 edition of Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report monitors and assesses achievements in the global quest for universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy by 2030.

The latest available data and selected energy scenarios reveal that at today’s rate of progress, the world is not on track to achieve SDG 7. This is particularly true of the most vulnerable countries and those that were already lagging. This report also examines various ways to bridge the gaps, chief among them the goal of significantly scaling up renewable energy while maximizing its socioeconomic benefits. Figure ES.1 offers a snapshot of the primary indicators.

This report was prepared as the COVID-19 pandemic and its broad social and economic disruptions entered a second year. The consequences of the pandemic are considered in this report, along with results from global modeling exercises—first to determine whether current policy ambitions are meeting the SDG 7 targets and, second, to identify what additional actions might be needed. The report also examines the investments levels required to achieve the goals. It presents scenarios drawn from the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) flagship publication, World Energy Outlook (IEA 2020b), and the International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA) Global Renewables Outlook: Energy Transformation 2050 (IRENA 2020a).

While renewable energy has demonstrated remarkable resilience during the pandemic, the unfortunate fact is that gains in energy access throughout Africa are being reversed: the number of people lacking access to electricity is set to increase in 2020, making basic electricity services unaffordable for up to 30 million people who had previously enjoyed access. The COVID-19 crisis has revealed the stark worldwide inequalities in access to reliable energy and health care, especially in rural and peri-urban areas, and has highlighted the need to expand energy access to help populations mitigate the effects of the crisis.

With the world preparing for the September 2021 launch of the first United Nations High-Level Dialogue on Energy in decades, the time is right to enhance international collaboration and progress toward SDG 7. In this context, the SDG 7 custodian agencies—IEA, IRENA, the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO)—urge the international community and policy makers to safeguard existing gains toward SDG 7; not to lose sight of the need for continued action on affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all; and to maintain a strategic focus on the vulnerable countries needing the most support.

Universal access to electricity. SDG target 7.1 is universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy services; 7.1.1 focuses on access to electricity. Recent progress in access to electricity was mixed, as is the outlook for 2030. While the share of people with access grew up to 90 percent in 2019, 759 million people still lack it. Half live in fragile and conflict-affected settings and 84 percent in rural areas.

The IEA’s Stated Policies Scenario projects that in 2030 some 660 million people will still lack access to electricity. About 940 million people will have to be connected by 2030 to reach universal access. The COVID-19 crisis threatens progress in some parts of the world. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people without access to electricity most likely grew in 2020. This means the access rate will have to more than triple between now and 2030. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, this would mean connecting around 85 million people each year through 2030.

Clean cooking solutions. If clean cooking fails to secure a foothold in the global political agenda, 2.4 billion people will be left with no access in 2030, according to IEA’s Stated Policies Scenario. Continuing to rely on polluting fuels and inefficient technologies will have dramatic consequences for the environment, economic development, and most notably, on the health of women and children. The challenge in Developing Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa is to understand, first, how cultural, economic, and social factors combine to slow progress; and, second, how to expand acceptance of affordable and available solutions centered on cleaner fuels, cookstoves with very low emissions, and efficient electric appliances that can be plugged into the grid or run on solar photovoltaic (PV) panels connected to a battery.