Tracking SDG7: The Road to 2030 Runs Through 22 Countries

The latest Tracking SDG7: Energy Progress Report confirms the world remains off track to achieve universal energy access by 2030. But it also reveals a more important shift. The remaining access gaps are concentrated in Africa, rural communities and a relatively small number of countries, strengthening the case for a more precise approach to investment, partnerships and implementation.

Eighty-nine million people gained access to electricity in 2024. By almost any measure, that should have been one of the strongest years yet for global energy access.

Instead, the number of people living without electricity fell by just 11.5 million, leaving 655 million people still without power. Population growth absorbed most of the gains.

That disconnect sits at the heart of the Tracking SDG7: Energy Progress Report 2026, published ahead of this year's High-Level Political Forum, where leaders are reviewing progress on Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) - which calls for affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030.

The report confirms the world is making progress, but far too slowly to achieve universal energy access by 2030. Around 2 billion people still lack access to clean cooking; renewable energy accounts for just 18% of global final energy consumption, and energy efficiency is improving at only 1.5% a year, well below the rate needed to meet the SDG7 target.

But the headline figures tell only part of the story. Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL)'s analysis points to two important shifts. The world's remaining energy access gaps are now concentrated in Africa, rural communities and a relatively small number of countries. Taken together, those shifts reveal where the next gains are most likely to come from.

Africa is now at the centre of the global clean cooking challenge

For the first time since monitoring of SDG7 progress began, Africa has overtaken Asia as the region with the world's largest clean cooking gap. This marks a fundamental shift in the geography of the global clean cooking challenge.

Since 2010, Asia has reduced its clean cooking gap by 57%. India alone accounted for roughly two-thirds of global net progress between 2018 and 2024, increasing access from 61% to 81% while reducing its gap by around 260 million people. Together, India and China account for almost all global progress over the past decade.

Africa's trajectory has been very different. Since 2010, the continent's clean cooking gap has grown by 26%. Today, around three-quarters of African countries have more people without access to clean cooking than they did in 2010 because progress has not kept pace with population growth.

The experience of recent decades shows that rapid progress is possible. But Africa's demographics, infrastructure and financing realities require approaches tailored to the continent's own circumstances.

Electricity access tells a similar story.

Africa's electrification rate has increased from 45% in 2010 to 62% in 2024, led by sustained progress across many countries, including Kenya, which connected around 21 million people over that period.

Yet despite those gains, the number of people living without electricity has barely moved, falling from 591 million in 2010 to 581 million in 2024. Population growth has offset much of that progress.

The remaining energy access gap is also becoming more rural. Across Sub-Saharan Africa, electricity access stands at 83% in urban areas compared to just 33% in rural communities, where conventional grid expansion is often slower, more complex and costly.

On current trends, around 92% of the world's unelectrified population will live in Africa by 2030. Nearly two-thirds of those still without clean cooking will also be on the continent.

Concentration is the opportunity, not just the problem

The world's remaining energy access gaps are increasingly concentrated. Twenty-two countries account for 80% of the global electricity access gap, with 19 of them located in Africa. Additionally, 20 countries account for 75% of the global clean cooking gap and 13 appear on both lists. 

Global progress will depend on sustained action in a relatively small number of high-impact countries.

The same pattern is evident across the wider energy transition. Twenty economies consume around three-quarters of the world's energy, yet renewables account for just 16% of their final energy consumption.

If China and the United States alone matched today's global average of 18% renewables in final energy consumption, the global share would increase by around 1.8 percentage points. At today's pace, that is equivalent to roughly 6 years of progress.

The same principle is now shaping how electricity access programmes are being designed. Mission 300 puts that principle into practice. Led by the World Bank and the African Development Bank Group, with support from SEforALL, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Global Energy Alliance, the initiative aims to connect 300 million people to electricity across Africa by 2030. Since July 2023, it has already connected more than 50 million people, almost doubling the previous pace of electrification.

Sustaining that momentum will depend on continued investment, stronger implementation and close collaboration between governments, development finance institutions and the private sector.

SEforALL's Universal Energy Facility applies the same principle through results-based financing by expanding mini-grids and standalone solar in rural communities that traditional investment models often overlook or find too risky. As the remaining electricity access gap becomes increasingly rural, decentralized renewable energy will play an even greater role in reaching communities that are unlikely to be served through conventional grid expansion.

Clean cooking presents a similar opportunity. Around 2 billion people still lack access to clean cooking, compared with 655 million who lack electricity. Together, those figures strengthen the case for linking electricity access and clean cooking more closely.

Electricity access provides a strong foundation for advancing both agendas together and SEforALL has long advocated for electrification and clean cooking to go hand in hand through solutions such as electric cooking.

SEforALL and the World Food Programme are introducing electric cooking in schools, beginning with Tanzania's first model eCooking kitchen at Kibasila Primary School. We are also a member of the Global eCooking Coalition (GeCCo), which aims to accelerate the transition to electric cooking across Africa, Asia and Latin America by 2030.

What the findings mean for the final stretch to 2030

Achieving universal access to electricity by 2030 now requires connecting around 161 million people every year. Universal access to clean cooking requires adding around 400 million annually. Renewable energy must grow by 13.7% each year, more than four times the historical rate, while annual improvements in energy efficiency need to almost triple to around 4%.

Progress over the next four years will depend not only on sustaining global momentum but on matching it with more targeted investment, financing and implementation where the remaining energy access gaps are now concentrated.

Global investment in clean energy continues to grow. Yet the latest Tracking SDG7 findings show that capital is not flowing at the same pace to the countries where the remaining energy access gaps are concentrated. Closing that disconnect will depend not only on mobilizing more capital, but on directing more of it towards the countries where it can have the greatest impact. 

The opportunity to accelerate progress is becoming more clearly defined. The question now is whether investment, financing and implementation follow the same logic. As the remaining energy access gaps become more concentrated, the global response must become more precise.