As part of UN Energy’s SDG7 Action Week, UNDP will host a session dedicated to De-risking Renewable Energy Investments (DREI) with the goal of addressing investor risks to unlock private capital for renewable energy in Africa.
With a focus on sub-Saharan Africa, the session will address the challenges in achieving electricity access, particularly for rural communities and the critical need for targeted interventions and increased financing to close the energy gap. The focus will be on how the international community, national governments, and the private sector can collaborate to overcome the obstacles hindering investment in decentralized renewable energy, particularly solar minigrids, which hold significant potential to electrify rural areas. The session will also showcase UNDP’s Derisking Framework, developed in partnership with ETH Zurich, and how it is being applied in various countries with very promising results.
The panel will address the following topics:
1. Catalyzing Investment in decentralized renewable energy through derisking:
- Discuss existing and emerging investment risks that are hindering investments in decentralized renewable energy in Africa
- Analyze the role of risk mitigation strategies, including public-private partnerships, in overcoming barriers to investment.
- Highlight innovative financing mechanisms, such as blended finance, that can drive large-scale renewable energy projects.
- Explore how climate finance can be strategically channeled towards renewable energy access programmes, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, to derisk investment while supporting countries’ development and climate agendas.
- Identify the necessary policy and regulatory support to create enabling environments for sustainable investments.
- Discuss new market opportunities for decentralized renewable energy systems, such as solar minigrids, with a focus on remote and off-grid communities.
2. Advancing Socio-Economic Development through electricity access:
- Examine how productive uses of energy can contribute to socio-economic development in underserved communities, enhancing livelihoods and creating jobs.
- Address the importance of energy security and resilience in supporting sustainable development in rural areas.
- Emphasize the need for inclusivity and capacity building to ensure that renewable energy projects benefit all community members, particularly marginalized groups.
Agenda
Panel discussion (1 hour):
Moderator / Opening remarks: Mateo Salomon, Principal Technical Advisor for Energy, UNDP
Speakers:
- Ije Okeke, Managing Director of Catalytic Climate Capital, Global South Team, RMI
- Daniel Schroth, Director of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Department, African Development Bank
- Filippo Berardi, Lead, Climate Change Mitigation, Global Environment Facility
- Sofia Maia, BloombergNEF
Q&A (30mins)
Linkages with UNDP Africa Minigrids Program (AMP)
- Enabling policymakers to derisk investments in solar PV mini-grids – AMP is currently supporting countries through derisking analyses to understand perceived investor risks and identify public instruments that are needed to address investor risks.
- Capacity building through the development of guidelines and toolkits, as well as targeted training, to support implementing partners to develop effective policies and build commercially viable mini-grid pilots.
- Facilitating discussions with key stakeholders to address key barriers that hinder scaling of mini-grids, including regulatory issues, political economy and mini-grid delivery models.