2.1 Technological breakthroughs have shifted the challenge of expanding energy access and decarbonizing production to policy and investment considerations

Demand for energy is also changing. warming ambient temperatures have created a greater need for cooling technologies. The cheapest forms of air conditioning and refrigeration are the least energy-efficient and their greater adoption places further demand on national energy supplies and increase greenhouse gas emissions.9 The global COVID-19 pandemic has placed greater stress on energy supplies within health systems. In 2020, an estimated 1 billion people relied on health facilities without electricity.10 Even before the pandemic, energy supply to health facilities was insufficient for maintaining the cold chain for vaccination supply.

Over the past decade, there have been significant changes in the ways in which energy is financed, provided and used. Policy and investment issues of relevance to the work of UNDP are described briefly below.

Over the past decade, the options for producing renewable energy have increased in number and viability. The reduced cost of solar photovoltaic cells and their large-scale production have been key drivers in this trend. The adoption of other renewables, such as wind and to a much lesser extent biomass and smaller- scale hydropower, have also increased, though their affordability and viability have not tracked those of solar energy. The digitalization of energy systems has drastically changed the ways in which energy supply and usage can be managed, offering the potential for engineers to troubleshoot issues in the system and to reduce the time households spend disconnected after a missed payment.

In 2018, developing countries installed the greatest share of new renewable energy capacity globally, though capacity per capita remains approximately four times higher in developed countries.11 Several hurdles limit the application of technological advancements in developing countries. Operating rural off-grid energy systems remains expensive, as do the storage technologies for home solar systems. Despite progress in decentralized energy technology, operating energy services in very remote areas and in island communities remains highly challenging. Furthermore, new technologies are often produced and patented outside of the countries with the greatest access challenges, and their adoption must compete with the cost of fossil fuels held artificially by low by subsidies or locally sourced biomass. Thus, they require policy measures to accommodate the intellectual property systems, trade and tax agreements necessary for their adoption and maintenance. Advances in digital solutions require further capacity support to avoid digital divides between and within countries, and to mitigate cybersecurity risks.12

In industrialized countries, studies show that the required greenhouse gas reductions from the energy sector are close to being technically achievable if the production of renewable energy is greatly expanded in combination with the adoption of efficiency measures.13 These technologies are also shown to be affordable

9 SE4All, Chilling Prospects: Providing Sustainable Cooling for All (2018) https://www.seforall.org/publications/chilling-prospectscooling-for-all-report. 10 IEA et al. Tracking SDg 7: The Energy Progress Report 2020. 11 IEA et al. Tracking SDg 7: The Energy Progress Report 2020. 12 UN-Energy (2021) Theme report on Innovation, Technology and Data: Towards the Achievement of SDg7 and Net Zero Emissions for the High-level Dialogue on Energy. 13 Dolf gielen, Francisco Boshell, Deger Saygin, Morgan D. Bazilian, Nicholas wagner, Ricardo gorini, The role of renewable energy in the global energy transformation, Energy Strategy Reviews, Volume 24, 2019, Pages 38-50, ISSN 2211-467X.