The Paris Agreement in December 2015 sent a clear signal that the world needs to shift to sustainable and efficient energy systems to prevent dangerous climate change, and that this energy transition needs to benefit the poorest. Additionally, the Sustainable Development Goals recognise that tacking climate change is crucial to poverty reduction.

This event explores what challenges and opportunities there are for delivering the clean energy needed to eradicate poverty by 2030 in two sessions. In Beyond coal: scaling up clean energy to fight poverty, discussion focuses on a new paper that outlines why moving beyond further expansion of coal power and accerlerating the transition to clean energy is critical to eradicating global poverty. In US-UK support for ending energy poverty in Africa by 2030, the panel explores the investment gap in energy access and the role of public finance and other support - particularly from the USA and UK - in closing it, enabling African countries to eradicate energy poverty.