The IKEA Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation are joining forces to set up a $1 billion global platform to fight climate change and energy poverty.
The platform — launching this year — aims to reduce 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions and to empower 1 billion people with distributed renewable energy (DRE). This is renewable energy generated from sources such as mini-grid and off-grid solutions, located near the point of use, rather than centralized sources such as power plants.
The new global platform will oversee the organizations’ combined matching funds. It aims to deliver clean and reliable power to the 800 million people worldwide who lack electricity, and a further 2.8 billion who have unreliable access. It will be run as a public charity to manage a concerted effort to rapidly channel development funds to life-changing projects on the ground.
While funding to support energy transition has increased at a global level, many organizations