(17:00 - 18:00 EET) Scaling and Tracking Solar Investment: A Critical Path to Universal Energy Access

The event will: 
•    Highlight the urgency of rapidly scaling up solar investment to mitigate climate change and advance universal energy access.  Solar technologies offer clean, affordable, and reliable energy, with the potential to deliver new energy access to millions of people by 2030 and to improve global energy security and resilience. Cost declines for solar energy and battery energy storage have made solar cost-competitive with fossil fuels and other renewable energy solutions, and many countries – particularly developing countries – have significant untapped solar energy potential.
•    Identify specific actions needed to overcome investment barriers and scale up investment for both grid connected and distributed solar, drawing on the findings of the Solar Investment Roadmap being launched at COP27 by World Resources Institute, the International Solar Alliance, and Bloomberg Philanthropies. 
•    Highlight the importance of energy data, analytics, and tracking to provide actionable insights for achieving universal energy access, using WRI’s Energy Access Explorer tool to illustrate the impact of effectively prioritizing areas for off-grid solar interventions.