Access to reliable, affordable, sustainable and safe energy is recognised as an enabler of many development objectives. Yet energy infrastructure is often planned as standalone investment, from a purely economic and technological standpoint and in a top-down way that does not take into account the needs of end users.

Access to affordable and reliable energy enables growth of local economies. And demand for energy ensures feasibility of business models for decentralised energy solutions such as mini-grids.

The off-grid energy sector continues to have a tremendous funding gap. Aggregation has great potential to channel finance into the millions of off-grid projects and products that will make universal energy access by 2030 possible.

Off-grid solutions can be designed to provide affordable electricity to poor communities in hard-to-reach areas but receive only a fraction of annual global investment in energy provision.

The Report Transport in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) that was published ahead of the 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP23) in Bonn, Germany summarises case study findings from rapidly-motorising countries, including Bangladesh, Colombia, Georgia, Kenya, Nigeria, Peru and Viet Nam.