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    Scaling up Finance for Sustainable
    Energy Investments
    July 13, 2015


    World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim
    Third International Conference on Financing for Development
    Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    As Prepared for Delivery

    Your Excellencies, Mr. Secretary-General, honored and distinguished guests,

    We are now one year in to the UN Decade for Sustainable Energy for All. As very proud
    partners in the global platform created by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, we are strongly
    invested in the three goals of SE4All:

•   To bring energy access to the more than 1 billion people in the world living without
    electricity

•   To double the share of Renewable Energy in the energy mix, and

•   To double the rate of improvement in energy efficiency.

    These three goals are interlinked and vital for achieving the twin goals of ending extreme
    poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity. It is no coincidence that the proposed
    Sustainable Development Goal on Energy has also focused on the three areas of access,
    clean energy and energy efficiency.

    We estimate that there are nearly 3 billion people—about 40 percent of the world’s
    population—who still lack access to clean-cooking fuels and efficient cook stoves. Even in
    countries that provide widespread access to electricity, many grids are not providing reliable
    service. One in three developing countries experience at least 20 hours of power outages a
    month.
When countries lack reliable access to electricity, people and economies suffer—women
and girls spend hours collecting fuel, clinics can’t store vaccines, children cannot do
homework at night, and businesses are unable to compete.

Today, in partnership with the UN, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and BNDES, we are
releasing the SE4All Finance Committee’s report on how we can unlock the much needed
public and private investment in sustainable energy. The report estimates that we need to
triple current investment levels to over $1 trillion a year if we are to reach the three SE4All
goals by 2030. This amount of capital cannot be mobilized without the private sector.

The World Bank Group – including our private sector and insurance arms IFC and MIGA –
has the necessary tools and instruments to accelerate private investment. In West Africa
alone, the World Bank Group will mobilize $10 billion in private investment for energy over
the next few years. To attract private investment, it’s critical to have bankable projects that
focus on access, renewables, and energy efficiency. Through the Global Infrastructure
Facility, we have an open partnership platform for project preparation; the African
Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank and other multilaterals also have project
development vehicles. Through the IFC’s infra-ventures, we are co-developing early stage
infrastructure projects in fragile and conflict-affected states.

In all of our efforts to connect the unconnected, technology and declining costs are on our
side. The unit cost of solar photovoltaics has decreased by two-thirds in five years. That
makes solar energy much more competitive. And now, more and more countries are
introducing renewable energy auctions that are helping drive down the cost of wind, solar
and other renewable forms of energy. In the most recent round of bidding in South Africa's
renewable energy auctions, solar photovoltaics was priced as low as 6.5 cents per kilowatt
hour which brings solar to grid parity. Meanwhile, the Lighting Africa program has
connected 35 million people to solar power.

We’re also financing the largest private sector-led solar initiative in the Middle East and
North Africa – a solar park in Jordan that will generate sustainable power in a region where
demand for electricity is rising rapidly every year.[1]


Despite these advances, the developing world has only begun to take advantage of its vast
renewable energy resources. Across Africa and Asia only 10 to 20 percent of hydropower
potential has been harnessed, and solar and wind potential are just beginning to be tapped.
We can do more, and along with our MDB and private sector partners, we stand ready to
support countries with their reform and investment agendas.

I had the great privilege of participating in a revolution in Africa that few people thought
would be successful – making HIV treatment available to all people living with the virus. We
proved that we could treat more than 10 million people for HIV in Africa. We must now
prove that we can make energy available to the hundreds of millions who need it. Access to
energy for all, especially in sub-Sahara Africa, is one of the most important social justice
issues of our time. Countries cannot develop without energy. People cannot have equal
opportunities without energy. We must work together to end energy poverty in our lifetime.

Thank you very much.



[1] http://wrld.bg/MrsNE