The Asia-Pacific region’s rapid and sustained economic growth, increasing population, and rapid urbanization are driving growth in energy demand. Ensuring that supplies of energy are adequate to meet this growth in ways that are socially, economically and environmentally responsible creates a new set of challenges for policymakers.

The regulated price mechanism in China’s power industry has attracted much criticism because of its incapability to optimize the allocation of resources. To build an “open, orderly, competitive and complete” power market system, the Chinese government launched an unprecedented marketization reform in 2015 to deregulate the electricity price.

This report examines the challenge of bringing power to over one billion people who live without electricity, mostly in remote, rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Under a business-as-usual scenario, almost 700 million people will still be without access to electricity in 2030, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Pakistan can increase its energy security, improve energy access, and spur social and economic development with renewable energy. Renewables Readiness Assessment: Pakistan identifies key actions to accelerate renewable energy deployment.