SDG 7 Progress Report — Where the World Actually Stands on Energy Access in 2026

As of 2026, roughly 680 million people still have no access to electricity. That number should shock you — not because it hasn't moved (it has), but because of what it represents just four years out from the UN's 2030 deadline for Sustainable Development Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy for All.

We are not on track.

I say that not to be defeatist, but because clarity is the beginning of action. I've spent years working at the intersection of energy policy and community advocacy — as Co-Chair of the African Caribbean Energy Network (ACEN) and through grassroots work in the Caribbean and Africa — and I've watched the gap between global targets and ground-level reality widen even as we celebrate incremental wins. This is my honest assessment of where we stand.

The Numbers — Progress Made and the Gap That Remains

Let's start with what's true and good: the world has made real strides. In 2010, approximately 1.2 billion people lacked access to electricity. By 2022, that figure had dropped to around 730 million. Progress, yes. But the pace has slowed significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted financing, supply chains, and governmental priorities — and it was never fast enough to reach zero by 2030.

The International Energy Agency (IEA), IRENA, and the World Bank — in their joint Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report — have consistently warned that at current rates, approximately 660–680 million people will still lack electricity access in 2030. Reaching universal access would require connecting roughly 100 million new people per year between now and then. We're currently connecting far fewer.

On clean cooking fuel — a critical but often overlooked component of SDG 7 — the gap is even more stark. Over 2.1 billion people still rely on solid fuels like wood, charcoal, and dung for cooking. The smoke from these fuels kills an estimated 3.2 million people annually, the majority of them women and children. This is an energy poverty issue. It is also a health justice issue.

Who's Being Left Behind — and Why

Progress on energy access has not been evenly distributed. The regions falling furthest behind are predictable — and their exclusion is not accidental.

Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for the vast majority of people without electricity access. Despite improvements in countries like Kenya, Rwanda, and Ghana, dozens of nations across the continent — particularly in the Sahel and Central Africa — have seen electrification rates stall or reverse. Democratic Republic of Congo, a country with extraordinary renewable energy potential in the Congo River Basin, still has an electrification rate below 20%.

The barriers are structural:

• Financing gaps: Clean energy investment in sub-Saharan Africa remains a fraction of what flows to Europe and North America. Risk perception — real and perceived — keeps international capital on the sidelines.
• Grid infrastructure: Many African nations built electricity infrastructure to serve colonial extraction industries, not population centers. Retrofitting or extending that grid is expensive and slow.
• Political instability: In conflict-affected countries, energy infrastructure is both a casualty and a target of violence.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) — including Caribbean nations — face a different but equally serious set of challenges. Most Caribbean islands are paradoxically sunny and wind-rich yet among the most energy-insecure territories in the world. They are almost entirely dependent on imported fossil fuels, leaving them vulnerable to global price shocks and supply disruptions.

Hurricane Maria's devastation of Puerto Rico's grid in 2017 was a warning. The reality is that across the Caribbean — from Haiti to the Eastern Caribbean islands — grid resilience is minimal, electricity tariffs are among the highest in the world, and the transition to renewables has been painfully slow. Energy is not affordable. And when storms hit, it is not reliable.

The people most harmed by energy poverty are women and girls who bear the burden of household energy tasks, rural communities far from grid infrastructure, and low-income households who spend disproportionate shares of their income on energy. Energy poverty is intersectional — it compounds racial, economic, and geographic inequality.

What's Actually Working — The Bright Spots

The story isn't only one of failure. There are bright spots — and they matter because they point toward what scale looks like.

Off-grid solar has been transformative. The cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels has fallen by more than 90% since 2010, making small-scale solar systems economically viable in regions where grid extension is not. Solar home systems now power millions of households across East Africa, South Asia, and increasingly the Caribbean.

Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) models have been the key to unlocking access for low-income households. Companies like M-KOPA and d.light allow customers to pay for solar systems in small, mobile-money installments — removing the barrier of upfront cost. PAYG has connected tens of millions of people in Africa to clean electricity for the first time. It is not perfect, but it is working at scale.

Mini-grids — small-scale electricity networks powered by solar or hybrid sources — are proving that reliable, clean power can reach rural communities without waiting for national grid extension. Countries like Nigeria, Tanzania, and Sierra Leone are scaling mini-grid programs. Done well, mini-grids can anchor community economic development, powering schools, health clinics, and small enterprises alongside households.

Regional cooperation is also showing promise. In the Caribbean, the CARICOM Secretariat and bodies like ACEN are pushing for regional energy policy harmonization and shared renewable procurement — recognizing that small islands can achieve economies of scale and resilience by acting collectively.

What Needs to Change

Progress to date has been insufficient. Here is what must shift before 2030 — and beyond it:

• Financing must flow differently. The climate finance that was promised to developing nations — $100 billion per year from wealthy countries — has not materialized consistently or in the right forms. Energy access projects, especially in the smallest and most vulnerable nations, need grants and concessional loans, not commercial-rate debt that countries cannot afford to service.
• Grid extension cannot be abandoned. Off-grid solutions are vital, but they are not a substitute for reliable national grid infrastructure. Governments and international partners must invest in grid modernization in parallel with off-grid deployment — not as an either/or.
• Policy consistency must improve. Investors — public and private — need stable regulatory environments to commit capital to energy projects. Too many countries have seen renewable energy policies change with each election cycle, creating uncertainty that delays or kills investment.
• Clean cooking must be treated as an energy priority. The billions of people still cooking over open fires are largely invisible in energy policy conversations. That must change. Clean cooking programs deserve dedicated financing, national strategies, and international attention equal to what electricity access receives.
• Local voices must lead. Energy solutions designed in Washington, Geneva, or Brussels without deep community input consistently underperform. The communities bearing the weight of energy poverty have knowledge, priorities, and innovations that external actors miss. Centering those voices — including through organizations led by people from the Global South — is not idealism. It is good development practice.

Where This Leaves Us

2030 will arrive. The question is whether we will arrive there having closed the energy access gap — or having published another report about why we fell short.

I believe change is possible. I've seen off-grid solar transform communities in the Caribbean and across Africa. I've watched PAYG models bring first-time electricity access to families who had waited decades. I've sat in rooms where the will to act was real and the solutions were available.

What is missing is not innovation. It is urgency, political will, and the financing to match the scale of the problem.

SDG 7 is not just a development goal. It is a justice issue. Every person still cooking over wood smoke, every child doing homework by candlelight, every clinic running out of power during a procedure — these are not statistics. They are people. And they are waiting.

If you want to go deeper — to understand not just the numbers but the root causes of energy poverty, the systems that perpetuate it, and what community-led solutions actually look like — I wrote the Energy Poverty Explained booklet for exactly that purpose.

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The work of change starts with understanding. Let's begin there.