The global community is tasked with ending poverty and enabling sustainable development while
tackling the climate crisis1. To deliver this action on the scale and in the timeframe required to
avoid dangerous climate change, countries around the world must act in solidarity and invest in
the transition to zero carbon and zero poverty in all countries. While developed countries must
rapidly peak and reduce their emissions, developing countries are being asked to develop without
emissions. This is the greater challenge and they must be enabled through unprecedented levels of
support from the international community.
To ensure that all people are enabled to take part in the transition to a zero carbon and zero poverty
future, innovative, targeted approaches will be necessary to reach the very poorest people and
communities. This policy brief explores one such targeted mechanism. Social protection systems
can be leveraged to rapidly and efficiently extend sustainable energy services to a country’s
poorest people – people who will not be reached by market based mechanisms alone. Adopting
this approach to complement existing energy access strategies will enable governments to roll out
energy services at scale, reaching the furthest behind first. A climate justice approach to achieving
universal energy access can advance climate action and sustainable development simultaneously.