The Critical Role of Emerging and Developing Economies (EMDEs) in the Clean Energy Transition

Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs) will play a critical role in determining the trajectory of global CO2 emissions over the coming decades. Much of the world's future growth in population, energy demand, industrial production, and infrastructure build will occur in these economies. At the same time, EMDEs have a legitimate and urgent need to expand energy access, accelerate economic development, and reduce poverty. The central challenge is therefore not simply how to reduce emissions in EMDEs but how these economies can continue to grow while building cleaner, more secure, affordable and resilient energy infrastructure.The three principal themes of this paper form an integrated strategy: 1. Finance is the enabler: Reducing the cost of capital and addressing the particular risks that make projects expensive can significantly improve clean energy economics. 2. Regional comparative advantage is the opportunity: Countries and regions should develop the energy resources in which they possess natural advantages rather than follow a uniform global technology prescription. 3. Systems design is the execution layer: Generation must be integrated with grid, storage, complementary energy sources, distributed systems, flexible demand and resilience if clean energy is to provide reliable and affordable energy at scale.Clean energy generation is not a contest between nations but a source of energy security for all through a combination of geographic specialization, integration and coordination or cooperation.