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Energy for Growth Hub
Overview
The Giving Green Fund plans to award an unrestricted grant to the Energy for Growth Hub to support its work in various areas, including contract transparency for clean energy markets; Energy Security Compacts, an initiative that would enable the US to swiftly respond to its allied partners’ energy concerns; and nuclear financing in emerging markets.
Energy for Growth primarily falls within our philanthropic strategy of supporting an energy transition in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and, to some extent, our philanthropic strategy of supporting nuclear power as a way to diversify energy portfolios. Please see Giving Green’s deep dive reports, linked above, for more information, including risks and potential co-benefits, recommended sub-strategies, theory of change, funding need, and key uncertainties.
Last updated: October 2024.
What is Energy for Growth Hub?
Energy for Growth Hub is a think tank headquartered in Washington, DC, with a global network of researchers and advocates. Its research, policy advocacy, and thought leadership focuses on promoting energy abundance and climate resilience. Its work focuses on four main areas: (1) creating progress indicators that link economic growth with ending energy poverty; (2) exploring opportunities for new low-carbon technologies in emerging markets, especially in Asia and Africa; (3) promoting open, competitive clean energy markets and effective development finance; and (4) examining the connections between climate, energy, and development policies. Energy for Growth was founded in 2018.
What are we funding at Energy for Growth, and how could it help reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
Contract transparency: In many LMICs, utilities often make deals with private developers for new power capacity, without revealing the contract terms to the public. This lack of transparency slows clean energy projects, keeps prices artificially high, raises investment risks, and hinders the shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energy by preventing fair assessment of energy options. Energy for Growth and its partners are pushing for transparency, both through top-down support from leaders and bottom-up efforts from civil society and policymakers. We think increased transparency could accelerate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by (1) helping countries avoid carbon lock-in and (2) expediting a clean energy transition compared to the counterfactual.
With more funding, Energy for Growth would speed up its advocacy efforts, strengthen its work with the Asian and African Development Banks, expand its global data collection, and work with partners in Asia and Africa to agree on legal ways to ensure contract transparency.
Energy Security Compacts: Energy for Growth has worked alongside a partner organization to propose Energy Security Compacts, a delivery mechanism for multi-year bilateral investments that enhance energy security among US allies. Compact development would include identifying and sequencing priority investments and reforms in selected countries and committing the US to providing key services, followed by years of implementation and monitoring. We believe there could be bipartisan political momentum for the US to support allied countries that rely on US competitors for energy. According to Energy for Growth, the markets where Compacts would be implemented would most likely address their energy security challenges by building out renewables. If true, we think this targeted work could help renewables scale more quickly and lead to faster reductions in emissions.
Nuclear financing in emerging markets: Energy for Growth has worked with a partner organization to map advanced nuclear markets and nuclear cooperation agreements as communication tools when engaging with policymakers. Their argument is that future demand will be in emerging markets and there is a strong need to develop financing options that will help build overseas demand for advanced nuclear reactors. Focusing on international markets could lower emissions if it supports new nuclear power projects that replace or prevent the need for new fossil fuel plants.
Energy for Growth would use additional funds to update its global maps and engage with the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), an agency created to catalyze US investment in overseas infrastructure projects. It plans to watchdog DFC’s progress in financing nuclear projects and propose specific changes to DFC’s reauthorization.
Why do we think Energy for Growth Hub will use this funding well?
Energy for Growth Hub’s past success includes being the first to propose a consolidated development finance agency, which we think helped inform the establishment of the DFC, and working with its partners to help overturn the DFC's ban on financing nuclear technologies. Energy for Growth was also involved in supporting Ghana’s public register of power purchase agreements.
We think Energy for Growth will use this funding well because it has demonstrated that it is skilled at building bold but practical policy proposals. Given its global mindset, it also seems likely to us that increased funding could help Energy for Growth replicate its efforts and success elsewhere in the world. Furthermore, we think Energy for Growth has been strategic in pushing relatively niche policies, which makes us believe funding to Energy for Growth would be additional.
For more on the difference between the grantees of the Giving Green Fund and our Top Nonprofits, please see this blog post on the Giving Green Fund. This is a non-partisan analysis (study or research) and is provided for educational purposes.