Developing nations need clean and efficient energy solutions to meet citizen needs. The world is not on track to meet Sustainable Development Goal 7, which calls for ensuring ‘access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all’ by 2030. Despite the significant needs in developing regions, energy efficiency and renewable energy investments have been stagnating in recent years. Barriers to investment include, for example, beneficiaries’ low capacity to pay for energy technologies and services, high transaction costs with providing small-scale renewable solutions, low mobilisation of local finance, lack of bankable projects, lack of appropriate regulatory frameworks and instruments, and poor enforcement or insufficient capacities.
Low electrification rates, high CO2 emissions, low energy diversification, unequal access, and inefficient use of energy are some of the biggest constraints on economic development in developing countries. The DESIREE Programme supports the European Investment Bank and The Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships to address these challenges by helping to develop an enabling environment, implementing capacity building support and technical assistance to key actors, and providing blended finance to support innovative business models and realize sustainable investments through private sector participation. The Programme will contribute to energy savings, improve access to clean energy, create jobs, improve health and education outcomes, raise productivity, reduce indoor and outdoor air pollution, and promote financial inclusion.
The Programme will address three main result areas:
