Powering an Inclusive Covid-19 Recovery

Compounding the enormous suffering caused by Covid-19 illnesses and deaths, the world is facing the largest peacetime shock to the global economy in a century. Past crises opened windows of opportunity to transform entrenched systems and build a better world. Given the scale and depth of the current crisis, this window is now wider than it has been for decades. 

The Rockefeller Foundation believes that a crucial part of a just and equitable recovery will involve building a global energy system that helps resolve the two great challenges of the modern era: poverty and climate change. In our new report Powering an Inclusive Covid-19 Recovery: Putting Green and Distributed Energy Infrastructure at the Heart of Rebuilding a Better World, we outline actions that we can take together to make this happen. 

The report finds that renewable energy is rapidly replacing fossil fuels as the most cost-effective building block for powering economic development, and that distributed renewables in particular have become a faster and more cost-effective solution to reaching under-served populations in many contexts. This opens an unprecedented opportunity to construct a modern, inclusive power system on a foundation of distributed and renewable energy solutions.

Taking advantage of this moment necessitates bold investments to drive a green, inclusive, and resilient recovery in lower-income and emerging economies. It requires government leaders, investors, and donors to put distributed renewable energy infrastructure at the heart of collective efforts to rebuild a better world. For these reasons, in this report, The Rockefeller Foundation is calling for a new global partnership dedicated to ending energy poverty with clean energy.