Background

The international energy and climate initiative Energy+ will use public funds to mobilise and provide incentives for commercial investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency in developing countries, in order to increase access to energy services and reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions.

There is a need to scale up efforts to increase access to electricity and clean cooking services. At the same time, it is urgent to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector relative to a business-as usual baseline. Deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency will enable developing countries to meet both challenges.

Energy+ builds on the success and conceptual framework of REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) and its phased approach. Energy+ has three design principles: Sectoral approach, payments by results and enabling a better environment for private and commercial investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

A preliminary study was initiated to determine whether any such initiative already existed. It found that there was no programme that combined all these factors.

This paved the way for the Government of Norway to initiate this unique project based on the three pillars; a sectoral approach, payments by results, and to facilitate commercial investments. The Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon launched Energy+ in October 2011.