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The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of the programmes being implemented with a view to ascertaining if they adequately address the energy needs of the poor more holistically and sustainably.

The content of this desktop review is based on information collected through a review of available energy policy documents from the Ghana Government and related governmental agencies, such as the Energy Commission and Ghana Statistical Services, international energy-related agencies, such as the International Energy Agency (World Vision, 2013), as well as other related web searches. Additionally, global and Sub-Saharan African energy access documents were reviewed by analysing secondary data from the World Bank and UN policy reports, statistical data, strategies, regulations, protocols and other related documents (World Vision, 2013). Furthermore, some policy documents on energy access and usage were explored mainly from Senegal and Ghana to ascertain governments’ policies, regulations and strategies in the implementation of energy access policies.

The paper offers all the various strategies being implemented in an attempt to establish a foothold on the problem of affording the poor with clean and affordable energies. The paper also presents the rich experiences of Senegal in its bid to see expanded access in liquefied petroleum gas usage by residential consumers.

The paper provides some policy and theoretical implications for improving Ghana’s energy access.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of energy development on industrialization in African economies from 1990 to 2017. It aims to assess how access to electricity, energy use and overall energy development contribute to industrial growth. By using panel data analysis and advanced econometric techniques such as fixed effects, two-stage least squares (2SLS) and system-GMM estimation, this study seeks to provide empirical evidence and insights into the complex dynamics between energy policies and industrialization outcomes. The findings are intended to inform policymakers and stakeholders on effective strategies to promote sustainable industrial development in the region.

This study uses a quantitative approach using panel data analysis spanning 1990–2017 from various sources. It uses fixed effects, 2SLS and system-GMM estimation methods to investigate the nuanced relationship between energy development and industrialization in African economies. This comprehensive methodology facilitates a robust examination of how different dimensions of energy development influence industrialization outcomes, aiming to fill gaps in existing literature and provide insights for policy formulation and implementation.

The findings reveal that energy development significantly enhances industrialization in African economies. Access to electricity and energy use both positively impact industrial growth, with access to electricity showing a stronger influence. This study underscores the critical role of energy infrastructure in fostering industrial expansion and economic development. Moreover, robust econometric methods confirm these relationships across various specifications, highlighting the importance of tailored energy policies to sustain industrialization efforts in Africa. These findings contribute empirical insights to the literature and provide actionable recommendations for policymakers aiming to enhance energy access and promote sustainable industrial development in the region.

This study contributes to the literature by offering new insights into the relationship between energy development and industrialization in African economies. By using advanced econometric techniques and focusing on nuanced dimensions of energy access and use, it addresses gaps in previous research. The findings underscore the significance of energy infrastructure for industrial growth, highlighting policy implications for sustainable development in Africa. This research adds value by providing empirical evidence that informs strategies to enhance energy efficiency, expand access to electricity and promote industrialization, thus contributing to broader discussions on economic development and energy policy in the region.

This study aims to investigate the impact of energy access on foreign direct investment (FDI) in an emerging market.

The study uses the two-stage least square instrumental variables estimation approach to compute the parameters of the model to account for any potential endogeneity and time persistence in energy access.

The results show that energy access significantly influences FDI inflows in Ghana. The results of the study also revealed that natural resources and macroeconomic variables such as real interest rate, gross domestic product growth rate are significant determinants of FDI inflows in Ghana.

The practical implication of this study is that there is a need for energy sector policy reforms in Ghana that would guarantee a secured and continued supply of energy to enhance energy access to boost FDI. Ghana should aim for a cost-effective, stable and environmentally friendly source of energy as an alternative to hydro energy as the main source of its power generation to promote FDI. Also, Ghana should initiate and implement policies aimed at creating an enabling and stable macroeconomic environment, as macroeconomic factors in this study are found to be drivers of FDI.

This study provides firsthand information on energy access and FDI from the Ghanaian perspective.

Energy poverty presents substantial challenges for both developed and developing nations, with the latter experiencing more pronounced adverse effects due to issues related to the provision and equitable access of energy resources. This study aims to provide a deep understanding of how financial development, economic complexity and government expenditures can impact energy poverty.

This research employs generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation on panel data to investigate the economic determinants of energy poverty in 31 developing countries from 2000 to 2020. For a comprehensive analysis, the proxies for energy poverty include access to electricity, access to clean fuels and energy consumption.

The findings suggest that while financial development cannot facilitate access to clean fuels in developing countries, it contributes to an increase in energy access and consumption. Another finding is that energy poverty can be alleviated by enhancing economic complexity since economic complexity can result in increased access to electricity and increased use of clean energy sources. Furthermore, the results underscore the pivotal role of government expenditures, surpassing the influence of financial development. In other words, government expenditures have the potential to significantly improve energy poverty across all three indices.

This is a pioneering research that seeks to examine some economic dynamics including, financial development and economic complexity on energy poverty and provide valuable guidance for policymakers aiming to promote sustainable energy development with respect to economic dynamics.

Driven by the Sustainable Development Goals (goals 7, 8, 12 and 13), this study investigates the moderating role of financial development in the link between energy poverty and a sustainable environment in African nations.

Panel cointegration analysis, fully modified least squares, Driscoll and Kraay least squares and method of moments quantile regression were used as estimation techniques to examine the link between financial development, energy poverty and sustainable environment for 28 African nations. Energy poverty is measured using two proxies-access to clean energy and access to electricity, while the environment is gauged using ecological footprint.

The regression outcomes show that access to clean energy and electricity negatively impacts the ecological footprint across all the quantiles; hence, energy poverty increases environmental degradation. Financial development positively influences environmental degradation in the region at the upper quantiles. Similarly, the interactive term of energy poverty and financial development has a significant positive impact on ecological footprint; thus, the financial sector adds to energy poverty and environmental degradation. The results of other variables hint that per capita income and institutions worsen environmental quality while urbanisation strengthens the environment.

This study offers fresh insights into the moderating effect of financial development in the link between energy poverty and sustainable environment in African countries.

Energy poverty is a global phenomenon, but its prevalence is enormous in most African countries, with a potential impact on quality of life. This study aims to investigate the impact of energy poverty on the shadow economy.

The study uses panel data from 45 countries in Africa over a period of 1996–2018. Using panel cointegrating regression and panel vector auto-regression model in the generalized method of moments technique.

This study provides that energy poverty deepens the size of the shadow economy in Africa. It also documents that there is a bidirectional causality between shadow economy and energy poverty. Therefore, the two variables can predict each other.

The study suggests that lack of access to clean and modern energy services contributes to the depth of the shadow economy in Africa. African authorities are advised to strengthen rural and urban electrification initiatives by providing adequate energy infrastructure so as to reduce the level of energy poverty in the region. To ensure energy sustainability delivery, the study proposes that the creation of national and local capacities would be the most effective manner to guarantee energy accessibility and affordability. Also, priorities should be given to the local capital mobilization and energy subsidies for the energy poor. Energy literacy may also contribute to the sustainability and the usage of modern energy sources in Africa.

Previous studies reveal that income inequality contributes to the large size of shadow economy in developing economies. However, none of these studies analyzed the role of energy poverty and its implications for underground economic operations. Inadequate access to modern energy sources is likely to deepen the prevalence of informality in developing nations. Based on this, this study provides fresh evidence on the implications of energy deprivation on the shadow economy in Africa using a heterogeneous panel econometric framework. The study contributes to the literature by advocating that the provision of affordable modern energy sources for rural and urban settlements, and the creation of good energy infrastructure for the firms in the formal economy would not only improve the quality of life but also important to discourage underground economic operations in developing economies.

Access to affordable and sustainable energy is crucial for the improvement of the well-being of modern societies. Most energy technologies require comparatively high up-front investment, which adds to the challenge of electrification, despite the recognized multiple benefits. Partnership with multinational enterprises (MNEs) can provide necessary investment in infrastructure, finance, and technology for renewable energy and contribute to improving development indicators. However, remote areas with poor infrastructure do not have access to MNEs that are profit seekers. The Brazil experience with MNEs and “Light for All” (LfA) program shows that people gaining access to electricity invest more in businesses, education, health, and women reduce their drudgery at household chores. However, areas having a poor infrastructure in the north remain out of electricity, and attempts to create universal access were failed until a regulatory incentive framework and particular attention from the government was established. This is a great learning for the developing countries aiming to achieve sustainable development goals. A host country can gain development cooperation from MNEs with rightly formulated and implemented policies and regulatory conditions.

This paper aims to assess the relationship between energy poverty and the well-being of people using Amartya Sen’s capability approach to development as theoretical underpinning.

The study uses household-level energy access data collected by the Harvard Dataverse in 2015 and 2018. The authors use multidimensional indices to measure energy poverty and well-being. Further, the authors apply quantile regression approach to measure the relationship between energy poverty and well-being.

The study’s findings reveal that energy poverty and well-being are negatively related. India has made progress in reducing energy poverty and improving well-being during the study period. However, progress in reducing energy poverty is largely due to improved access to electricity and improvement in well-being due to income and financial inclusion. Using modern cooking fuel has a greater negative impact on well-being compared to lighting using electricity. Further, households spending a greater proportion of their income on modern energy fuels leads to a lower quality of life as it precludes them from using it for other purposes. The study records wide variations in the observed relationship between energy poverty and well-being across various socioeconomic groups.

This calls for improvement in the production and distribution of modern energy resources, which have substantial welfare implications.

This is the first study to measure the relationship between energy poverty and quality of life using multidimensional indices. The findings of this paper have policy implications for the pricing of energy resources and energy access measures.

This study aims to provide empirical evidence on two research questions: firstly, whether green finance is positively related to electricity access, and, secondly, if the domestic economic environment moderates the relationship between green finance and electricity access? This paper pays particular attention to the regional disparities in Africa.

While pursuing the study objectives, the authors apply a variety of statistical approaches and tools to assess the robustness of the findings. The authors use panel dataset for analysing data. In order to empirically examine the relationship between green finance and electricity access in the African region, the paper employs static and dynamic panel estimation methods, Poisson method and adopts two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) approach for dealing with issues relating to endogeneity. The authors also use alternate proxy for the electricity access, which is drawn from the regulatory indicators for sustainable energy (RISE) scores.

The authors find that despite the fact that green funding appears to support job creation, household incomes aren't high enough to drive rising demand for electricity. The study underscores the role and responsibilities of external funding agencies to ensure that funds at the receiving end are effectively routed to encourage access to clean and sustainable energy, which is good to the economic and domestic environment. Further, due to the relatively modest size of some funds, the cost to administer those funds is larger than the funds themselves. This causes inefficiencies, which may temporarily provide jobs but not lasting growth. This means there is no regular need for energy, therefore larger investors have no reason to enter the market. This discourages investors from public-private partnerships or private investments and prevents future investment.

The provide insights into the private-public partnerships and whether the challenges to electricity access are being turned into investment opportunities. The effects of the power Africa project initiatives are revealing, with, sanitation being an impediment to the development of electricity infrastructure, specifically in low-income group countries.

The study confirms the view that trivial amounts of green financing (US-Aid or grants) impose a burden on the absorptive capacity of the recipient government and increases the transaction costs and is likely to be an impediment (Kimura et al., 2012) to initiating projects that enhance electricity access.

The results indicate that although green financing seems to be supporting employment opportunities, income levels are insufficient to create demand for electricity usage. It, therefore, becomes imperative that sanitation (SDG 6) is fully addressed in order to ensure that SDG 7 is attained.

The authors provide insights around the private public partnerships and whether the challenges to electricity access are being turned into investment opportunities. The effects of the power Africa project initiatives are revealing, with, sanitation being an impediment to the development of electricity infrastructure, specifically in low-income group countries.

This case study was developed using data from secondary sources. The data was collected from the organization’s website, annual reports, press releases, published reports and documents available on the internet.

According to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy Outlook (WEO), 775 million people worldwide would not have access to electricity even by 2022, with the majority of them living in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) (Cozzi et al., 2022). In SSA, energy poverty had been a serious issue over the years. According to the IEA, 600 million people lacked access to electricity in 2019, while 900 million people cooked with traditional fuels (Cozzi et al., 2022). A World Bank report from 2018 said many SSA countries had energy access levels of less than 25% (Cozzi et al., 2022). Energy poverty in SSA hampered sustainable development and economic growth.

Despite significant efforts to address this poverty, Africa remained the continent with the lowest energy density in the world. Although solar and other energy-saving products were appealing, their adoption rates were modest, and their distribution strategies were not particularly effective. The lack of electricity exacerbated a number of socioeconomic problems, as it increased the demand for and use of wood fuel, which caused serious health problems and environmental harm.

While working in Uganda, Katherine Lucey (Lucey) saw that having no electricity had negatively affected women’s health in particular because it was women who were responsible for taking care of the home. These effects were both direct and indirect. The women’s reliance on potentially harmful fuels for cooking, such as firewood and charcoal, resulted in their suffering from respiratory and eye problems, in addition to other health issues. Furthermore, the distribution of energy-saving and renewable energy items was seen as the domain of men, and there was an inherent gender bias in energy decisions. Women were not encouraged to participate in energy decisions, despite the fact that they were the ones managing the home and would gain from doing so. In addition, because there was no light after dusk, people worked less efficiently. Lucey saw the economic and social difficulties that electricity poverty caused for women in rural Africa. She also witnessed how the lives of a few families and organizations changed after they started using solar products. This motivated her to start Solar Sister with the mission of achieving a sustainable, scalable impact model for expanding access to clean energy and creating economic opportunities for women.

Solar Sister collaborated with local women and women-centric organizations to leverage the existing network. Women were trained, provided all the necessary support and encouraged to become Solar Sister Entrepreneurs and sell solar products in their communities and earn a commission on each sale. To provide clean energy at their customers’ doorstep, the Solar Sister Entrepreneurs received a “business in a bag” – a start-up kit containing inventory, training and marketing assistance.

Solar Sister’s business model empowered the women in SSA by providing them with an entrepreneurship opportunity and financial independence. Also, the use of solar products helped them shift from using hazardous conventional cooking fuels and lead a healthy life. The children in their households were able to study after sunset, and people in the community became more productive with access to clean energy.

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, however, had a serious impact on Solar Sister. It found it challenging to mentor and encourage new business owners due to restrictions on travel and on group gatherings. The Solar Sisters were unable to do business outside the house either. Their source of income, which they relied on to support their families, was therefore impacted. The COVID-19 outbreak also slowed down the progress achieved by the community over the years and made household energy purchasing power worse. Furthermore, the organization was also grappling with other issues like limited access to capital, lack of awareness and infrastructural challenges. Another challenge lay in monitoring and evaluating the organization’s impact on the last mile.

In the absence of standardized measurement tools and issues in determining the social impact of Solar Sister, it would be interesting to see what approach Lucey will take to measure the impact of Solar Sister on the society. What measurement tool/s will Lucey implement to gauge the social impact of Solar Sister?

This case is intended for use in PG/Executive-level programs as part of a course on Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainability.

The authors estimate the reduction of electricity poverty in Vietnam. The essential argument is that human development is about subjective feeling as much as technology and income.

The authors use a self-reported satisfaction indicator as complementary to objective indicators based on national household surveys from 2008 to 2018.

In 2010, the fraction of households with access to electricity was over 96%. However, over 24% declared their electricity use did not meet their needs. Since 2014, the satisfaction rate is around 97%, even if 25% of the households used less than 50 kWh/month. Today there is electricity for all in Vietnam, but electricity bills weigh more and more in the budget of households.

The subjective energy poverty measure allows better international statistics: unlike poverty or needs-based criteria, self-assessed satisfaction of needs compares across income levels and climates.

Inequalities in electricity use among Vietnamese households decreased during the 2008–2018 period, but are not greater than inequalities in income, contrary to the findings of Son and Yoon (2020).

Engineering and econometric objectivist approaches dominate the literature on sustainability monitoring. Out of 232 sustainable development goal (SDG) indicators, only two are subjective. Yet the findings show that subjective indicators tell a different part of the story. Access is not grid building, but the meaningful provision of electricity to satisfy the needs.

This paper aims to analyse the extent to which households are deprived (or otherwise) of clean energy sources in Ghana.

It engages the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey data. Three different energy deprivation indicators were estimated: cooking fuel deprivation, lighting deprivation and indoor air pollution. The empirical evidence is based on logit regressions that explain whether households are deprived or not.

The results show that energy deprivation or access is contingent on the area of residence. Energy access and deprivation in Ghana show some regional disparities, even though across every region, the majority of households use three fuel types: liquefied petroleum gas, charcoal and wood cut. Increases in wealth and education lead to reduction in the likelihood of being energy deprived. Thus, efforts should be geared towards policies that will ensure households having access to clean fuels to reduce the attendant deprivations and corresponding effects of using dangerous or dirty fuels.

This study complements the extant literature by analysing the extent to which households are deprived (or otherwise) of clean energy sources in Ghana.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between gender inequality and energy poverty in Southeast Asian countries from 2000 to 2020. The study aims to assess the long-term impact of gender inequality on energy poverty by considering factors such as per capita gross domestic production (GDP), population growth and gross capital formation. By analyzing these variables, the research seeks to shed light on the disproportionate burden women face in energy-poor regions and to provide insights into how addressing energy poverty can promote gender equality and sustainable development in the region.

This study uses a dynamic generalized method of moments (GMM) model to analyze the long-term cointegration between gender inequality and energy poverty in Southeast Asian countries. The data, sourced from World Data Indicators, spans from 2000 to 2020, including variables such as GDP, population growth and gross capital formation. Proxy measures for energy poverty and gender inequality were developed using access to electricity, clean cooking technologies and female employment statistics. Stationarity tests and cointegration analyses were conducted to ensure the validity of the results, confirming the relationships among the variables for the region studied.

The study finds a significant positive relationship between gender inequality and energy poverty in Southeast Asian countries. Higher levels of gender inequality are associated with increased energy poverty, with women disproportionately affected due to reliance on traditional cooking methods. The dynamic GMM model confirms this long-term cointegration, showing that economic growth initially increases energy poverty but reduces it as nations invest in sustainable energy. Population growth has a negative association with energy poverty, suggesting that development and infrastructure improvements mitigate its effects. These findings highlight the need for gender-sensitive energy policies in the region.

This study offers a novel contribution by empirically examining the long-term relationship between gender inequality and energy poverty in Southeast Asian countries, an underexplored area in existing literature. Using a dynamic GMM approach, it highlights the disproportionate burden women face due to energy poverty, particularly through traditional cooking methods. The research provides valuable insights into how addressing energy poverty can promote gender equality, offering practical policy recommendations for sustainable development. Its findings serve as a foundation for policymakers to craft gender-sensitive energy interventions that enhance both social equity and economic growth in developing regions.

Integration between the different components of development is a major aspiration of the 2030 agenda, but the efforts of firms that intend to contribute simultaneously to multiple development trajectories may be hindered by trade-offs that occur between the different sustainable development goals (SDGs) and targets. At the same time, synergies may also materialize and reinforce firm’s contribution. This chapter analyzes the effects of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and other foreign investors on two different targets of SDG 7, namely access of population to modern energy systems, chiefly electricity, and the use of carbon-free and renewable energy sources in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries, and the authors investigate whether foreign investors experience trade-offs and synergies in their contributions. A two-equation growth model of households’ access to electricity and carbon factor is estimated by employing a panel dataset that covers 15 SSA countries and foreign direct investment (FDI) from 82 origin countries over the 2005–2011 period. The findings reveal that foreign investors are subject to a trade-off in their effects, because when they foster access to electricity they are also likely to spur carbon factor increases, and vice versa, depending on the economic development of host and home countries. Nevertheless, electrification and carbon factor reduction are shown to be linked by a system-level synergy. The results have implications for the design of MNEs attraction measures and energy policy in recipient countries.

Energy poverty is a major obstacle to economic and social development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where over 600 million people lack access to electricity. This situation stifles entrepreneurship, particularly in rural areas with non-existent energy infrastructure. This paper aims to examine the direct, indirect and nonlinear effects of energy poverty on entrepreneurship in SSA.

Using data from 36 SSA countries (2007–2020), static panel data models were estimated with generalised least squares and Driscoll–Kraay methods to address cross-sectional dependence and heteroskedasticity.

The results reveal that reducing energy poverty significantly increases new business creation density. This effect remains robust across various estimation techniques. Indirectly, alleviating energy poverty enhances entrepreneurship by improving internet access and health outcomes.

The analysis is limited to data up to 2020 and focuses on SSA, potentially limiting generalisability. The findings theoretically support the idea that reducing energy poverty can stimulate entrepreneurship by improving access to essential resources and infrastructure.

Policymakers should prioritise inclusive electricity access to stimulate entrepreneurship, particularly in rural areas where energy poverty is most severe.

This study provides empirical evidence on the link between energy poverty and entrepreneurship in SSA, a region often underrepresented in research. The use of robust econometric methods strengthens the findings’ validity.

This paper aims to present a new master’s programme for promoting energy access and energy efficiency in Southern Africa.

A transdisciplinary approach called “participatory integrated assessment of energy systems” (PARTICIPIA) was used for the development of the curriculum. This approach is based on the two emerging fields of “multi-scale integrated assessment” and “science for governance”, which bring innovative concepts and methods.

The application of the PARTICIPIA methodology to three case studies reveals that the proposed transdisciplinary approach could support energy and development policies in the region. The implementation of the PARTICIPIA curriculum in three higher education institutions reveals its ability to respond to the needs of specific contexts and its connection with existing higher education programmes.

Considering energy issues from a transdisciplinary approach in higher education is absolutely critical because such a holistic view cannot be achieved through engineering curricula. Deliberate and greater efforts should be made to integrate methods from “multi-scale integrated assessment” and “science for governance” in higher education curricula to train a new breed of modern-day energy planners in charge of coming up with solutions that are shared by all relevant stakeholders.

This paper presents an innovative higher education curriculum in terms of the attention given to energy access and energy efficiency that affect the southern Africa region and the nature of the methodology adopted to face these issues.

Nanotechnology's rapid development worldwide is a significant measure for countries to strengthen the building of energy security. Thus, to empirically investigate the underlying effect of nanotechnology on energy poverty alleviation, the authors of this study assess the impact of nanotechnology on alleviating energy poverty in developing countries.

The paper used panel data for 56 developing countries over the period 2012–2019, by employing dynamic generalised method of moments (GMM) analysis.

The findings showed that the emergence of nanotechnology has a significant trend in increasing energy poverty in developing countries. This suggests that whilst nanotechnology may be a promising solution for addressing energy poverty in certain contexts, nanotechnology may not be the most viable option for reducing poverty in developing countries. The findings have added credence as the findings are robust to the inclusion of alternative energy poverty measures and additional controlled variables.

Although this study results show unpromising outcomes in addressing energy poverty in developing countries, the authors believe that this may be a short-term phenomenon. In the long run, policies and programs must be put in place to support the development and deployment of nanotechnology to reduce energy poverty.

The authors believe this is the first attempt to examine the dynamic influence of nanotechnology development on energy poverty in developing countries. From the standpoint of nanotechnology development, this can help policymakers develop rules and regulations to tackle energy poverty.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the challenges in improving women's energy access, rights and equitable sustainable development from a Ghanaian perspective.

The research utilizes a mixed method. A qualitative in-depth exploratory design was chosen to understand how gender is mainstreamed within Ghana's energy sector. This included semi-structured interviews with key managers, experience policy experts and focus groups. The semi-structured interviews were analyzed using thematic content analysis (TCA).

The study reveals that the National Energy Policy of 2010, as the main energy policy regulating the energy sector in Ghana, does make provision for gender equality, safety especially women, in line with Ghana's sustainable development goals. The energy policy aims to empower women and create gender parity in the sector. Nevertheless, the study also found major challenges to gender mainstreaming in the energy sector, including poor analysis in formulating energy policies, inadequate financial resources, and poor monitoring and evaluation.

The paper exposes gender equity challenges associated with the energy sector in Ghana. It also offers a new policy angle which connects gender mainstreaming to sustainable development. The research describes how women are included in developing energy policies and in addressing gender challenges in the energy sector.

As the global push for renewable energy intensifies, it becomes imperative to critically assess the socio-territorial repercussions of some of these initiatives in local communities and their environments. The emergence of certain “eco-blind projects” serves as a reminder of situations where innovative modern solutions, although environmentally friendly, fail to acknowledge and safeguard territorial identity and the surrounding landscape. Within this comprehensive framework, the chapter emphasizes the pressing need to strike a delicate equilibrium between the pursuit of energy transition goals and the preservation of local traditions, and ecosystems. By considering the socio-territorial ramifications and fostering community engagement, policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders can collectively chart a path that leads toward a more sustainable and inclusive renewable energy landscape. This approach encapsulates not only the imperative of curbing climate change and alleviating energy poverty but also the crucial task of upholding the identity of local communities and safeguarding the irreplaceable natural and cultural resources that form the bedrock of their territory.

From the 1990s to the present, decision-makers around the world have sought to identify the most appropriate legal framework to support the energy transition. This research aims to analyze the institutional dynamics of renewable energy promotion, focusing on regulatory aspects at the European and national level and emphasizing the case of Romania through several comparative approaches. In the context of the conflict in Ukraine, we focused on the issue of coal, which was reconsidered given the dependence of some European countries on this resource. The main research methods used in this study are comparative analysis and analysis of chronological information in a historical context, with correlations being made. The study was structured in three stages, the first from the 1990s until the European Energy Union formation, the second during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the third from the emergence of the conflict in Ukraine, which determined the recalibration of previously adopted measures. Starting from the hypotheses formulated and considering the regulatory scenario conducive to the transfer of public funds to achieve climate neutrality, the results of the study show the fact that, at this stage of the research, the states of the European continent are determined to fight for zero carbon by 2050. One result we found interesting is that almost a year after the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, less than a quarter of European states have moved past their assumed deadline for phasing out coal in the national mix.

Recently, multidimensional aspects of poverty has been increasingly focused on which includes education, economy and health, while access to modern energy such as stable electricity is also one of the possible solution; thus, this article aims to divulge the relation between access to electricity and progression in socioeconomic status in urban and rural areas of Nigeria in an attempt to propose a sustainable framework for access to electricity.

Demographic and health survey data are collected using four categories of model of questionnaires. A standard questionnaire was designed to gather information on features of the household's dwelling element and attributes of visitors and usual residents between the 2018 period. Biomarker questionnaire was used to gather biomarker data on men, women and children. Logistic model estimation technique was employed to estimate the socioeconomic factors affecting access to electricity in Nigeria.

These studies discovered that there are diverse set of factors affecting access to electricity in Nigeria especially in the rural areas. However, respondent residing in rural areas are still largely deprived access to electricity; most importantly, households with no access to electricity are more likely to use self-generating sets as revealed. Additionally, empirical findings indicated that the higher the level of your education and wealth, the higher the likelihood of having access to electricity in Nigeria. These factors included political will to connect the rural areas to the national grid, development of other infrastructures in those deprived areas and others.

The problem confronting access to electricity in Nigeria has three components. The first is the significance of those deprived access to electricity in the rural areas and the physical resources needed to connect them to the national grid. The second is the political willingness of the government to have equitable distribution of public goods evenly between rural and urban areas especially on electricity access which will go a long way in reducing poverty in Nigeria. The third is lack of robust national development plans and strategy to tackle the problems facing electricity access in Nigeria.

As the rate of socioeconomic status/development increases, access to electricity is anticipated to rise up in Nigeria.

The findings can be used by the policy makers to address problems facing access to electricity in Nigeria.

This study aims to identify sustainability indicators in the energy sector through a literature review and validate them from the perspective and context of professionals working in the sector in an emerging economy country, Brazil, considering the relationship of these indicators with the achievement of the targets set by the United Nations sustainable development goals (UN SDGs).

To accomplish this, a literature review on sustainability indicators specific to the energy sector was conducted. Subsequently, a research instrument (questionnaire) based on the identified indicators was developed and a survey was administered to professionals in the field. The collected data were analyzed using the Lawshe method.

The results revealed 20 indicators, distributed across environmental, economic and social dimensions. Among these, nine indicators were validated, including global impacts, local impacts, renewable energy production as a percentage of total production, greenhouse gas emissions, access to electricity, investment in the energy sector, installed capacity in the electricity sector, energy prices in the end-use sector and energy distribution and conversion efficiency.

Consequently, it was possible to determine which SDGs are directly impacted and provide a foundation for future actions that can contribute to the sustainable advancement of the energy sector in emerging countries.

This study aims to use 67 developing countries to examine the role of financial inclusion as an “empowering tool” for renewable energy uptake and to improve environmental sustainability in developing countries.

Using a battery of econometric models, including the generalized method of moment-panel vector autoregression (GMM-PVAR), impulse response function, Granger causality, fully modified ordinary least squares and dynamic ordinary least squares, the study proposed and tested three hypotheses.

The results from various estimations indicate that financial inclusion has a positive effect on renewable energy consumption and environmental sustainability improvement in developing countries. The findings suggest that financial inclusion can improve environmental sustainability by increasing access to financing to fund renewable energy projects, support sustainable businesses and promote sustainable practices.

This study suggests that policymakers prioritize financial inclusion to promote renewable energy consumption and environmental sustainability. Policies should enhance access to financial services, offer financial incentives and subsidies, provide affordable loans through microfinance institutions and fintech companies and promote sustainable businesses and green technologies.

The purpose of this study is to test the modulating role and threshold of governance quality in the cost of living–energy poverty nexus.

Two-step System Generalized Methods of Moment empirical model with linear interaction between cost of living and governance quality was estimated. This study used data on 40 African countries over 20 years (2000–2019).

The paper shows that the conditional effect of inflation on energy poverty is negative. Thus, governance quality acts as a moderator on the relationship between inflation and energy poverty beyond a threshold. The study's principal practical implication is that governance quality reverses inflation's positive unconditional effect on energy poverty, and governance quality may be improved beyond specific policy-defined thresholds to achieve the desired goal of lowering energy poverty. Nonetheless, governance quality at initial stages would not drive the needed reduction in energy poverty unless it goes beyond the threshold of 0.03, 0.02 and 0.07.

This study recommends that policymakers should initiate policies that would ensure increased access to clean energy.

This study's main contributions are that the authors estimated the threshold beyond which governance quality reverses the adverse impact of inflation on energy poverty. Further, the authors have shown that governance quality is a catalyst to reduce energy poverty.

Given the ever-growing fiscal commitments of Nigeria and her chequered history of electricity generation and distribution, the fortunes of the energy sector in the country have been affected by the prevalence of energy poverty. Government policies such as public capital expenditure (PCE) present a crucial option for reducing energy poverty in Nigeria, providing the purpose of this study.

To investigate the relationship between government capital spending and five distinct energy poverty proxies, this research applies the Bayer–Hanck cointegration system and the auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound test.

The findings indicate that public capital spending in Nigeria worsens energy poverty by reducing access to electricity, urban electrification, renewable energy consumption and renewable electricity generation, with a positive but insignificant influence on rural electrification.

This inquiry presents a pioneering investigation of the nexus between PCE and energy poverty in Nigeria. Also, aside from the variables of energy poverty adopted by existing studies, this study incorporates renewable energy consumption and renewable electricity output with implications for energy poverty and sustainable development.

People with energy poverty are denied the modern energy services such as cooking, lighting, heating, cooling and communication. These needs are all crucial to maintaining an acceptable level of living standards. This paper aims to examine the effects of energy poverty on health and education.

This systematic review was conducted using the 2009 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. The ScienceDirect, Scopus and Google Scholar databases were used to search the studies conducted between 2012 and 2022. Studies included in this review were searched with some combinations of keywords and saved in Mendeley Desktop for review and referencing. Of 1,745 articles retrieved after removing the duplicates from the databases, 22 met the inclusion criteria.

Out of the total 22 studies reviewed, six were conducted in Asia, six in Europe, four in Africa, three in developing countries and one each in North America, Australia and at global level. Results indicated that impacts of energy poverty on health and education were negative. Efforts should be made to improve the economic conditions of the population in order to allow them access to energy services to achieve higher levels of living.

As this systematic review excludes non-peer-reviewed literature, case studies, reports and theses, and only includes studies published between 2012 and 2022 in English language only, consequently, it may not provide an exhaustive overview of the literature on topic.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic review to investigate the relationship between energy poverty, health and education conducted here. The search methodologies involve systematic searches of databases and other manual searches. Considering the wide inclusion criteria, this review is useful as a general overview of the issues and identifies particular gaps in the existing evidence.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the energy–growth linkage in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with emphasis on real sectors’ contribution to aggregate growth using dynamic panel estimation techniques that are practically and conceptually superior to the static models.

Dynamic panel econometric techniques pooled mean group, mean group and dynamic fixed effect were used to investigate the linkage among energy consumption, real sector value added and economic growth from 1967 to 2016 in 48 SSA countries.

A strong empirical evidence in favor of energy dependence and growth hypothesis in the investigated SSA countries was found. The finding that real sector value added and overall growth rate adjust reasonably to the shocks and dynamics of the energy consumption variables makes energy consumption an enabler for growth. This indicates that well thought-out and implemented energy development policy will not only increase energy consumption but also elicit multi-sectoral growth while addressing the obvious energy deficiency in the SSA region.

It is also important to note the policy implications of the high adjustment profiles indicated by the error correction representations. All the speeds of adjustment of the three models denominated in time are slightly above a year and are all within predictable limits (they fall below unity or 100%). We found that when agriculture value added, manufacturing value added and overall economic growth rate in our SSA panel estimation exceed equilibrium levels as a result of deviations arising from energy related variables, downward adjustments at 66%, 62% and 78% per year, respectively, take place.

The study indicates that well thought-out and implemented energy development policy will not only increase energy consumption but also elicit multi-sectoral growth while addressing the obvious energy deficiency in the SSA region.

Much as this study has made some addition to the literature on energy-growth nexus in the SSA region, which undoubtedly is an unveiling of economic forces in a collection of developing and energy deficient economies, it will be of great research significance if the form and style of this study is adopted for other economic blocs in the shapes and sizes of the SSA region.

This study ensured currency of data, novelty of approach and disaggregated energy consumption into emerging sources, traditional sources and geographical access.

This study aims to focus on the nexus between off-grid systems and impacts on islands and remote villages in Ghana by investigating the sources and cost of energy, willingness to pay for electricity and impacts of off-grid energy on the local economy, education, health, social activities, the environment and migration.

Data were obtained from 110 households; heterogeneous impact analysis of off-grid technologies, average treatment effect by inverse probability weights (IPW) and inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) models were used to analyse the data.

The sources of energy are gas, kerosene, wood fuel and dry-cell battery. All households in communities with neither electricity nor off-grid system were willing to pay for electricity. Households without off-grid systems (US$8.1) were willing to pay higher amounts per month for electricity. The off-grid technologies improve the local economy, social activities, security, the environment, education and health as well as reduce out-migration.

Most of the literature on mini-grid/off-grid systems have been from the engineering and the technical perspective, with a few on the socioeconomic impacts of the systems and consumer engagements. Besides, methods including descriptive statistics, energy technology sustainability framework and qualitative analysis were used in these studies. Nevertheless, the authors used a more rigorous method of the doubly robust inverse probability weighted regression adjustment model and a heterogeneous method to model the impact analysis of off-grid systems.

The purpose of this study is to examine households’ behavior towards dirty cooking energy utilisation in an environment where relatively higher accessibility to clean energy is noted. Although the low utilisation rate of clean energy can partly be attributed to utility gains anticipated in dirty energy mixes (DEMs) arising out of accessibility constraints, affordances and enablers, it is still unclear on the extend at which each of these contributes towards DEMs manifestation among the seemingly well-to-do households with higher levels of clean energy mixes (CEM) access. This study, therefore, hinges on scrutinising on this lower utilisation patterns despite a seemingly higher accessibility of CEMs, specifically liquified petroleum gases (LPG).

The study is based on a household’s survey that was carried out in 2018, reaching a sample of 393 households using questionnaires in four wards of the Kigamboni district in Tanzania. Subsequent analyses were descriptive as well as inferential based on binary logistic regression analysis where utilisation of DEMs was predicted for both the high and low social economic status (SES) households by incorporating accessibility constraints, affordances and enablers.

The results show, first, if one assumes energy stacking is not an issue, as households become more constrained towards CEMs utilisation, they shift towards DEMs suggesting that the overall effect is a substitution, and second, the complementarity effect ultimately outweighs the substitution effect as households do not shift from DEMs to CEMs rather stack multiple energy. DEMs flourish in this case study area because those with high income are among those in the lowest SES, and some of those with the highest SES are from among the lowest income category, and all of them end up with more DEMs because shifting towards CEMs require income to complement SES.

Policy-wise, removing hurdles in accessing CEMs such as LPG subsidy programme, gas stove provision to the poor, and enhanced LPG awareness will most likely benefits only those who do not stack energy in cooking while strategies targeting those at the lowest SES such as higher education attainment, empower women as a family decision maker, encourage co-occupancy to enlarge the household size and contain urban growth within certain perimeter will have a significant impact only if they raise both incomes and SES.

Despite of the dominance of DEMs for cooking such as charcoal and firewood in Tanzania, CEMs such as LPG, have emerged as complements or alternatives in the household energy basket. The utilisation of such CEMs is, however, still very low despite the accessibility, cost, environmental and health advantages they offer. Accessibility is not the only factor fuelling CEMs; a complementarity must exist between SES and income for the positive transition towards CEMs to be realised.

This case discusses the journey of SELCO Foundation, a Bengaluru based not-for-profit organization. It provides key learning and insights for social transformation and poverty alleviation. With the vision of “creating inclusive development pathways that were socially and environmentally sustainable,” the Foundation fostered and scaled ecosystems for democratization of access to clean energy and sustainable solutions for the marginalized communities. Using decentralized renewable energy (DRE), SELCO’s initiatives had established linkages between SDG7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and SDG3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG4 (Quality Education), SDG8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and SDG11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities). Throughout its journey, it continuously challenged normative development paradigms and perceptions about gender issues, poverty, and sustainability as a whole through a people-centric approach; empowering individuals, communities, and institutions. The recent COVID-19 pandemic landed a massive blow to the country’s socioeconomic structure. SELCO Foundation’s teams deployed in remote locations for livelihood interventions programs had faced a multitude of challenges due to COVID-19 lockdown. As a response to COVID-19 crisis, SELCO Foundation rallied its resources to support relief efforts across India. It leveraged its expertise in energy by deploying a pan India network of grass-root partners; community-sourced innovations to ramp-up last mile healthcare infrastructure, build community resilience programs, and strengthen existing capabilities. Leveraging sustainable solutions as a medium, SELCO’s transformative work extended beyond access to clean energy, and sought to address complex issues such as healthcare, education, reduction in drudgery in manual jobs, creating opportunities for dignified work and more. Through this case study, this chapter discusses the emergence, journey, and initiatives of SELCO Foundation. It explores a practice-based pedagogy of social transformation, and challenges faced in ecosystem building during the times of the pandemic. The chapter initiates a discussion for a way forward for the social enterprise in times of uncertainties and stringencies in order to continue impacting underprivileged lives to the best.

The purpose of this paper is to assess how the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) renewable energy policy (EREP) affects energy intensity using the difference-in-difference (DID) and the propensity score matching methods (PSM). Based on the current debates on renewable energy policies (REP) and due to the fact that energy efficiency has been a challenge for ECOWAS member states. The authors set up a framework to assess the EREP effect on energy intensity.

Using the DID and PSM approaches the paper assesses the effect of EREP on energy intensity. The following three different paths are considered: Path 1 tests the EREP effect on electricity access. Path 2 tests the use of renewable energy sources as a factor to enhance the energy intensity. Path 3 tests whether or not use of renewable energy deployment has the potential to raise the total percentage of primary energy supply. The principle is to investigate if and to what extend the EREP increases the energy intensity.

The results indicate that EREP has a significantly positive effect on increasing the percentage of energy intensity in ECOWAS member states that has implemented the policy, resulting for a large percentage of the population to electricity access in treated groups. Empirical estimation results largely corroborate the three paths’ hypotheses. The result indicated that the EREP has increased the percentage of electricity access throughout the region.

The paper explores a more appropriate framework to examine the effect of EREP and enriches the literature on the impact of REP by combining a policy evaluation approach (PSM-DID) method. This paper is the first to the knowledge to estimate the EREP effect by using a non-parametric approach. The majority of previous studies have focused on using case studies, exploratory analysis approaches and econometric methods.

This chapter provides an overview of the current status of renewable energy projects and identifies the key success factors of well-performing public–private partnerships (PPPs). To this end, this study analyses around 1,700 renewable projects on the World Bank’s Private Participation in Renewable Energy (PPRE) database. We then follow an inductive approach for a case review and examine a 5-MW rooftop solar PPP in Gujarat, India, that had been implemented in 2012. In spite of the rapid growth of renewable PPPs, regional disparity is distinct and most PPPs have been undertaken in Latin America and the Caribbean or a few selective countries such as China or South Africa. The case study informs that the successful PPPs may be attributed to such factors as policy coordination in multi-governance systems to attract project investments, the handling of land constraints in a project planning stage, and Green Incentive given to project participants. It offers a valuable insight into the significance of well-designed PPPs for enhanced energy access in developing countries, while accelerating the global transition to renewable-based energy supply to promote sustainable development.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it discusses the role of entrepreneurship, in general, and women entrepreneurship, in particular, in advancing the cause of sustainable development. Future research directions that emerge from the body of knowledge that the paper relied upon have been identified. Second, it presents unique cases of eight women-led enterprises in energy sector spread across three continents, namely, Asia, Africa and the USA; identifies the constraints and opportunities, analyses the business models and their impact on the quality of life pointers to demonstrate the role of women-led enterprises in sustainable development.

The paper combines a schematic review of literature at the interface of entrepreneurship and sustainable development coupled with select relevant case studies addressing the interface. The real-life case studies, which are consciously chosen and compiled from secondary data sources, complement and testify the insights drawn from the schematic literature review. The framework for analyzing the case studies is designed around multidimensional drivers and factors that steer the women-led enterprises.

The paper identified the need to look at entrepreneurship through the gendered lens not only for studying entrepreneurship as a discipline, in general, but also to gauge whether the inclusion of women as entrepreneurs is actually advancing the cause of sustainable development. Besides analyzing real-life case studies of accomplished women entrepreneurs to gauge their motivations and mindsets, the process of identification of pain points, identifying differentiating and innovative features, or studying the impact on society, economy and environment, the paper eventually created a schematic framework of key enablers, constraints and strategic response of women entrepreneurs.

Given the dearth of adequate theoretical and empirical contributions on the study of effectuation, mindsets and drivers of how women entrepreneurship steers the process of sustainable development, the paper is an endeavour in that direction.

Grassroots innovations, developed by local people using locally available resources, have shown the potential to provide low-cost technological solutions to the problems faced by underserved consumers in the global south. This paper aims to link the concept of grassroots innovations to energy use in the context of India.

The paper takes three case studies from the list of technologies scouted and nurtured by the National Innovation Foundation to critically discuss the potential of grassroots innovations for the dissemination and diffusion of urban sustainable energy uses. The data for this study has been collected from various secondary sources. It discusses the opportunities and challenges in promoting grassroots innovations for sustainable energy uses in urban settings.

The paper discusses the opportunities and challenges in promoting grassroots innovations for sustainable energy uses in urban settings.

Although the concept and understanding of grassroots innovations have well developed, its linkages with sustainable energy use in urban settings have received scarce or no attention in the literature.

Energy consumption in transportation accounted for over 29% of total final consumption (TFC) of energy and 65% of global oil usage, and it is highly connected to mobility. Mobility is essential for access to day-to-day activities such as education, leisure, healthcare, business activities, and commercial and industrial operations. This study examines the energy consumption for the transport industry, and the level of renewable energy development in some selected Sub-Saharan African (SSA) nations. This study relied on previous publications of government, reports and articles related to the subject matter. Vehicle ownership is fast increasing, particularly in cities. Still, it begins at a relatively low level because the area is home to countries with the lowest ownership rates worldwide. In its current state, the energy sector faces significant challenges such as inadequate and poorly maintained infrastructure, dealing with increasing traffic congestion in cities, large-scale imports of used vehicles with poor emission standards that affect air quality in cities, a lack of safe and formally operated public transportation systems, and inadequate consideration for women and disabled mobility needs. Motorcycle and tricycle are dominating the rural areas, accounting for a substantial amount of this growth. Aviation is the largest non-road user of energy, and this trend is predicted to continue through 2040 as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grows and urbanisation expands. This study revealed the energy consumption for the transport industry, and the level of renewable energy development in some selected SSA. Rail and navigation lag behind current global levels. The usage of biofuel and rail transport was recommended.

In the absence of new policies, global trends in energy supply and consumption are unsustainable all around. Today, roughly 2.6 billion people use fuelwood, charcoal, agricultural waste and animal dung to meet most of their daily energy needs for cooking and heating. There are 1.6 billion people in the world without electricity, equal to over a quarter of the world population. The purpose of this paper is to present pro‐poor solutions for addressing the crippling impacts of current global energy use on the world's poorest people.

The paper lays out scenarios for global energy demand and greenhouse‐gas emissions and highlights the impact of these trends on developing countries. Based largely on publications and research from the International Energy Agency, it shows that better targeted subsidies, capacity building, integrated policy approaches and improvements in data collection can help to alleviate the impacts of current energy use on health and the environment.

Decisive action is needed to expand energy access and to arrest the potential impacts of climate change in poor countries. It is demonstrated here that investments in programs that are tailored to promoting development and addressing climate change simultaneously can be successfully deployed.

There is an urgent need for policymakers in rich and poor countries to join together and tackle the global energy and climate challenges, and, as this paper shows, pro‐poor foresight is needed to ensure that these challenges are met in an equitable and sustainable way.

Over the past three decades, new off-grid electrification infrastructures – as micro-grids and other solar solutions – have moved from innovative initiatives, conducted by NGOs and private stakeholders, to a credible model promoted by international organizations for electrification of rural areas in developing countries. Multiple conditions support their spread: major technological advances in the field of renewable energies (panels, batteries), intensive Chinese industrial production allowing lower prices, institutional reforms in Africa including these solutions in major national electrification programmes, and, finally, an opening to the private sector as a supposed guarantee of the projects’ viability. However, while the development of this market calls for significant investments, a vast set of calculations and a strong “micro-capitalist” doctrine, all involved in their design, experts admit that a large proportion of projects hardly survive or even fail.

This chapter investigates these failures by exploring the ecology of such infrastructures, designed for “the poor.” It discusses “thinking infrastructures” in terms of longevity by focusing on economic failures risks. The authors argue that the ecology of the infrastructure integrates various economic conversions and exchanges chains expected to participate in the infrastructure’s functioning. By following energy access solutions for rural Africa in sub-regions of Senegal and Madagascar, from their political and technical design to their ordinary life, the authors examine the tensions and contradictions embedded within the scripts of balance supposed to guarantee their success.

Many clean energy ventures, particularly those in the early stage and operating in the developing world, never get off the ground because traditional sources of capital like banks tend to shy away from sectors that seem unfamiliar or too risky. As highlighted most recently in the COP21 Paris Climate Change summit in December 2015, there is a critical gap in market understanding of and limited scholarly research on the role clean energy entrepreneurship can play in addressing energy poverty and sustainable business model development in the developing world. To address these gaps, this chapter seeks to connect the theory and practice of clean energy entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa. Three issues and questions will be explored in this chapter. First, what are the critical differences in terms of sustainability and entrepreneurship between industrialized OECD countries and emerging markets and developing countries? Second, what key issues and questions need to be addressed in order to design, build, and scale a clean energy entrepreneurial ecosystem in sub-Saharan Africa? Third, what is the future outlook for clean energy entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa?