Financing the Last Mile of Electricity-for-All Programs: Experiences from China

Abstract

Electrification is key to deliver modern energy services and other fundamental services that dependent on energy. China has achieved electricity for all by end of 2015. This is an impressive achievement, giving China’s large population and the world still has more than 1 billion population without electricity access. Finance is one of the main barriers to deliver energy to the world poorest. While there are numerous programs to facilitate and promote electrification in developing world, there are significant finance gaps to achieve UN’s Sustainable Energy for All by 2030. About 6 billion USD a year in commitments went to increase residential electricity access for medium or high levels of electricity service, which falls well below the estimated 45 billion USD needed annually to meet the 2030 objective of universal electrification. There are still significant financial gaps to fill to enable global electricity for all.