Abuja: The United Nations UN says finance commitments under its Energy Compacts have reached $1.6 trillion, with $284 billion already mobilized towards achieving global goals on renewable energy and clean cooking technologies. This was contained in the Energy Compacts Annual Progress Report, launched on Thursday at the EnergyNow SDG7 Action Forum on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. The report shows expanding action under the Energy Compact voluntary commitments on both energy access and transition.
According to Voice of Nigeria, ‘of the $284 billion mobilized or deployed since 2021 through the Compacts, the majority has been private sector investment in renewable power generation.’ Figures from the 2025 Tracking SDG7 report indicate that over $4 trillion total investment is needed annually to reduce the ranks of 660 million people living without electricity and over 2 billion still cooking with polluting fuels, while setting the world on a climate action trajectory towards net-zero emissions by 2050 and averting ever-worsening climate impacts.
The leadership of UN-Energy, including Haoliang Xu, Acting Administrator of UNDP and Co-Chair of UN-Energy; Damilola Ogunbiyi, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All and Co-Chair of UN-Energy; and Li Junhua, Under-Secretary-General of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, emphasized that the world is at a decisive moment for energy. They stated, ‘Choices made today will determine not only whether we achieve our climate and development goals, but also how future generations experience prosperity, equity, and security.’
The Energy Compacts are demonstrating that transformation is feasible and that solutions to advance the global energy transition are investment-ready and being scaled, adapted, and delivered. Progress on achieving affordable and clean energy for all-Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7-has been moving forward, though not at the necessary scale and pace to meet the 2030 Agenda deadline or the climate targets under the Paris Agreement.
The Energy Compacts progress report outlines commitments from governments and the private sector, including planned spending to increase energy access, efficiency, and renewables. Since the launch of the Energy Compacts in 2021, 209 commitments have been registered with significant results. Notably, the Energy Compact initiatives have enhanced electricity access for 285 million people, a substantial increase of 108 million people over the past year.
The latest Tracking SDG7 Report highlighted that population growth in Sub-Saharan Africa continues to outpace access gains, leaving approximately 14 million additional people without clean cooking solutions annually. Updated figures demonstrated that Energy Compacts have positively impacted a broad range of SDG goals, such as improving electricity access at over 10,400 health facilities (SDG3) and facilitating the deployment of over 2.8 million electric vehicles and over 336,000 charging stations (SDG11).
The report included guidance for national governments, regions, cities, private companies, financial institutions, UN agencies, and civil society organizations on submitting their Energy Compact commitments through an online process. As countries update their national climate commitments under the Paris Agreement, incorporating energy targets through national Energy Compacts is recommended as an important tool, with Indonesia and Nepal cited as examples.
The report was prepared by UN-Energy, the coordination mechanism comprising nearly 30 UN and international organizations focusing on energy issues, with data compiled and analyzed by Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL).