UN Secretary-General launches Global Grids Accelerator to power growth and clean energy in Africa and South-East Asia
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UN Secretary-General António Guterres today launched the Global Grids Accelerator, a new initiative to help accelerate investment in electricity infrastructure across Africa and South-East Asia and help turn government and regional priorities into investable, operational projects.
Announced ahead of the UN Climate Summit 2026, the Accelerator will focus on grid priorities identified by governments, bringing together the policy expertise, project preparation, finance, and implementation support needed to move them forward.
The initiative responds to a central challenge of the energy transition: renewable power is expanding rapidly, but in many places the grids needed to connect and carry that electricity are not keeping pace.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: “Renewables are booming, but the grids that carry clean power are not keeping pace. Grids are the arteries of the energy transition. The Global Grids Accelerator will help bring the expertise, finance and support needed to build them – expanding access, strengthening energy security and powering growth in developing countries.”
Electricity grids have emerged as one of the biggest bottlenecks in the global energy transition. More than 2,500 gigawatts of renewable energy projects - equivalent to nearly twice the entire electricity generation capacity of the United States - are currently stalled in grid-connection queues worldwide. Annual global investment in grids, now approximately $450 billion, needs to increase by around 50 percent by 2030 to keep pace with rising electricity demand and record renewable power additions as confirmed by the International Renewable Energy Agency.
Source: Wikipedia