Sub-Saharan Africa faces unique and acute challenges in the global fight to mitigate and adapt to climate change. On one front, the impacts of climate change are predicted to be more severe. At the same time, 548 million people in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity and instead have to rely on kerosene and diesel generators for lighting, while another 900 million (85% of the population) lack access to clean cooking fuels and technologies, causing rapid deforestation. In this context, energy access companies in the region are playing a major role in providing clean energy access to vulnerable people, but they now find their continued existence in peril due to the economic effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

As the energy access sector has matured and scaled up over the years, it has shifted the development pathway of Africa towards a renewable future. This has entailed replacing gas generators with powerful solar home systems, fuelwood stoves with electric pressure cookers, and diesel water pumps with solar-powered irrigation. 

The Energy Access Relief Facility (“EARF”) is a concessional debt fund that is intended to provide energy access companies with vital liquidity during this crisis, in the form of low-interest, unsecured junior loans.  GCF will channel its investment into Climate CV, which, in turn, will participate in EARF loans to eligible companies operating in NOL countries. The aim of these loans is to help companies remain solvent, maintain staff and supply lines, be positioned to drive the post-COVID-19 recovery, and reduce 1.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO₂eq) in emissions.