700 million people still live without electricity. Here’s how to fix that | Jacqueline Novogratz

Summary

Detailed Summary of TED Talks Daily Episode:

"700 Million People Still Live Without Electricity. Here’s How to Fix That | Jacqueline Novogratz"

Release Date: July 22, 2025
Host/Author: TED
Speaker: Jacqueline Novogratz

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Introduction

In this compelling TED Talk, Jacqueline Novogratz, a renowned impact investor, addresses one of the most pressing global challenges: the lack of electricity access for 700 million people worldwide. She presents a visionary plan to illuminate this dark reality, which she terms as one of the "biggest planetary market failures" of our time. Novogratz emphasizes the profound impacts of electricity on stability, migration, and inequality, and shares inspiring success stories from her firm’s investments to illustrate a sustainable path forward.

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The Current State of Electricity Access

[04:16] Novogratz begins by highlighting the stark reality that despite the invention of the incandescent light bulb nearly 150 years ago, 700 million people remain without access to electricity. She underscores that without reliable power, individuals depend on "dirty, expensive, sometimes dangerous fuels for light," exacerbating social and economic disparities.

Impacts of Electricity Access

Electricity is portrayed not merely as a convenience but as a cornerstone of resilience and empowerment. Novogratz explains that:

• Resilience: Electricity enables communities to withstand climate-related events such as floods and droughts by powering essential services like irrigation, cooling systems, and communications.
• Agency and Empowerment: Access to electricity allows for enhanced communication, education, and economic activities. For instance, she shares the story of Susan, a woman who, after receiving a solar system, no longer fears nighttime dangers and can access educational content like sign language courses for her children ([07:45]).
• Economic Benefits: The average family reduces energy spending by over 50%, and the sector has generated more than 370,000 quality jobs to date.

Progress and Potential of Off-Grid Solar Solutions

Novogratz celebrates the significant strides made in off-grid solar energy over the past decades:

• Reduction in Unaccessed Electricity: From 1.5 billion people without electricity in 2007, the number has been halved, thanks to off-grid solutions.
• Technological Advancements: The evolution from basic lighting to comprehensive home systems has enabled innovations like solar-powered televisions, cook stoves, irrigation systems, refrigeration, and electric motorbikes.
• Future Projections: While progress is commendable, hundreds of millions remain, particularly in regions like Burundi (11% electrification), Malawi (16%), and Chad (12%). Novogratz stresses that this is not just a statistic but a matter of human dignity.

The Dual Imperative: Mitigation and Adaptation

Addressing electricity access is crucial for both mitigating and adapting to climate change:

• Mitigation: Although Africa contributes only 3.5% to global emissions, its population is expected to grow to 2.5 billion by 2050, necessitating sustainable energy solutions to avoid exacerbating future emissions.
• Adaptation: Reliable electricity is essential for building resilient infrastructures that can withstand climate volatility, such as powering hospitals, schools, and businesses during crises.

Overcoming Financial Barriers

The primary obstacle to universal electricity access is not the lack of technology but the scarcity of appropriate capital. Novogratz critiques the current climate finance landscape:

• Insufficient Funding: Last year, $2 trillion was allocated to transition industries to cleaner energy, yet less than 0.1% of this reached off-grid solar initiatives.

• Capital Stack Solution: Novogratz introduces the "Hardest to Reach" initiative, a multi-layered capital stack combining philanthropy, impact investing funds, and commercial banking to mobilize $250 million for Africa’s challenging energy markets. This approach leverages:

  • Philanthropy: Provides early-stage, patient capital to foster innovation.
  • Impact-Aligned Debt Facilities: Anchored by funds like the Green Climate Fund, attracting institutional investments.
  • Commercial Partnerships: Engaging entities like Shinhan Bank to amplify financial resources.

The Moral Imperative

Novogratz appeals to the audience's sense of morality, arguing that:

• Shared Human Dignity: Ensuring access to electricity affirms the inherent dignity of every individual.
• Risk of Inaction: Failing to provide electricity access threatens human potential and fosters instability, increased emissions, and forced migration.
• Moral Imagination: Rethinking investment strategies to prioritize human and environmental well-being over mere financial returns is essential.

Vision for the Future

Concluding her talk, Novogratz inspires hope and urgency:

• Historical Opportunity: Bringing electricity to everyone is a monumental, albeit challenging, task that history will remember.
• Legacy: She poses a reflective question about how future generations will view our actions, urging a legacy of control over capital and technology to enhance human dignity.
• Poetic Reflection: Quoting the poet Hafiz, she emphasizes the power of selfless love, likening it to the sun’s unwavering support: “It lights the whole sky.”

Notable Quotes

• Jacqueline Novogratz [04:16]: "700 million people on this planet still lack access to electricity when the sun goes down."
• Novogratz [10:30]: "Electricity is independence and it has great economic impact. The average family reduces energy spending by more than 50%."
• Novogratz [16:45]: "Risk is not just a financial concept. It's an environmental concept, a social concept, and it is most definitely a moral concept."
• Novogratz [17:50]: "We learn to control capital and technology and not be controlled by it. I hope they say we cared, that we did hard things, that we loved the world, and in doing so, we set ourselves free."

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Conclusion

Jacqueline Novogratz's TED Talk serves as a powerful call to action to address the global electricity access crisis. By intertwining stories of individual transformation with strategic financial solutions, she paints a comprehensive picture of how sustainable energy can drive profound societal change. Her vision underscores the interplay between ethical investment, technological innovation, and human dignity, making a compelling case for why the world must unite to bring light to every corner of the globe.

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For Further Information:
To explore more about TED’s initiatives and curation, visit TED.com.
For details on Jacqueline Novogratz’s work and Acumen’s initiatives, refer to Acumen.org.

Transcript

[Elise Hu]

You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. In a hundred years, what will future generations say about us and what we did or didn't do for them and this planet? It's a powerful question that impact investor Jacqueline Novogratz asks in her talk where she lays out a plan to bring electricity to everyone on the planet, fixing, as she calls it, one of the biggest planetary market failures of our lifetime. For Jacqueline, it is in darkness that instability, forced migration, and inequality rise. Sharing examples of success stories her firm has invested in, she lays out how this dream is possible and asks us to consider what is the risk of not daring to be better and not daring to bring light sustainably to all.

[Jacqueline Novogratz]

Foreign.

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[Jacqueline Novogratz]

I want to share with you a plan to fix one of the biggest planetary market failures of our lifetime. It's been nearly 150 years since Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light bulb, ushering in the age of electricity. So how can it be that 700 million people on this planet still lack access to electricity when the sun goes down? They depend on dirty, expensive, sometimes dangerous fuels for light. And these are some of the most overlooked and underestimated people on the planet. But we can solve this problem if we have the moral imagination to do two things. First, we have to rethink how we approach risk. Second, we have to address the false binary between mitigation or reducing emissions and adaptation, or adjusting to the climate crisis. Before we talk about that, though, let's look at what's at stake. We know that the most vulnerable are disproportionately impacted by climate events. Electricity is resilience. It's agency. It's light and irrigation and communications, and it's cooling. It's also basic empowerment. We live in an age where tech entrepreneurs are promising that every child on the planet will have their own AI tutor. Unless you're a child without access to electricity. The good news is that, as we've discussed, solar energy has been one of the great success stories of the 21st century. When my organization acumen started investing in off grid electricity in 2007, 1.5 billion people on the planet had no access to electricity. Today that number has been cut in half. And while off grid can't claim full credit, it's been an important part of, of the story and I've had the privilege of investing in and witnessing the evolution of this extraordinary off grid sector that started off with lights and then we saw home systems with radios and cell phone chargers. And then emerged the adjacent possible solar televisions and cook stoves and solar irrigation and refrigeration and e mobility. And today you can thousands of electric motorbikes powering down the streets of Kenya and Rwanda. I've also been able to talk to so many customers across the continent, like Susan, who said that what surprised her when she got her solar system was that she no longer experienced deep fear. Every single night, she said, I used to fear bandits, wild animals, men, or going to the toilet, her external toilet and being bitten by a snake. She said, now I don't feel stress. My children and I have more connection. And indeed, they'd finished watching a course on their solar television to learn sign language in Kiswahili, so that for the first time in their lives, they were able to communicate with their deaf cousins. Energy is independence and it has great economic impact. The average family reduces energy spending by more than 50%. And this is a sector that has created more than 370,000 good jobs. We as a world are on track to reach another 300 million people by the end of the decade. That still leaves hundreds of millions living in the dark. These are the hardest to reach in places like burundi with an 11% electrification rate, Malawi 16, Chad 12th. And those aren't just statistics. Those are human beings. And yet too often we dismiss them as too poor, too risky, too hard. So let me say this clearly. This is about our shared human dignity. If we believe that all human beings deserve dignity and we understand that the impact of climate will disproportionately impact the most vulnerable amongst us, then these are precisely the people on whom we need to focus. Because electricity isn't just about light. It's about communication. During floods, irrigation during droughts, it's about cooling medicines. During heat waves and pandemics, it's about hospitals and schools, businesses, so that isolated communities, already fragile, can build resilience in an increasingly volatile climate. Adaptation matters. But this story has equal urgency for mitigation. Not today. The continent only contributes 3.5% of total global emissions. And the average African consumes about 1:15 the energy of an American. But those are the wrong numbers to pay attention to. What matters is future emissions. The continent's population is expected to grow from 1.5 to 2.5 billion people by 2050. And so the question is, what kind of energy will fuel it? What we've learned from investing in off grid is that once families are on the first rung of the solar energy ladder, they don't go back. That's good news for the planet and for its people. If we just brought electricity to 10 million families basic level, we would avert more than 27 million tons of carbons looking forward and create about $10 billion in direct economic benefit. Multiply that and you get transformation. But how do we do it? The companies are here, but the capital is not. And one thing for certain is that money cannot be the constraint. Because last year the world allocated $2 trillion to to transitioning industry from fossil fuels to cleaner energy. But less than 800 million want to off grid solar. That's less than 0.1%. And it makes no sense because climate finance isn't scarce. It's scared. And maybe at first glance you can understand it. Customers make a few dollars a day. Macroeconomic headwinds like inflation, depreciation have pummeled markets. Inequality, lack of jobs in some places, uncertain leadership. Okay, but if we focus only on narratives that talk about the problem, we miss the much bigger narrative of the opportunity. Electricity is foundational and we can solve this problem. But we need the right kind of capital to open up new energy markets. And a lot of people have been thinking for a long time about how to do that in ways that are more important today in a post aid era. My organization's been building on our investing work for many years to create an initiative called the Hardest to Reach. It's essentially a multi layered capital stack that's a blend of philanthropy, impact investing funds from development finance institutions and a commercial bank. It starts with $60 million in philanthropy so that we can take early stage patient capital investments and those companies operating in the most challenging climates. Philanthropy let you go fast. So Already we've invested $12 million in eight companies in Sierra Leone, Benin, Malawi, the DRC, and most recently Somalia. Side by side is a debt facility that is impact aligned. It's anchored with funding from the Green Climate Fund and others. And again, that allows us to bring in more institutional capital. Above, including Shinhan, the largest commercial bank in Korea. Thus far, 21 different stakeholders across the capital continuum, from grants to impact to commercial have come together to bring a quarter billion dollars in financing to Africa's most challenging energy markets. Now, making this happen hasn't been easy. It has relied on the leadership, the courage and the competence of a whole lot of people, including in big institutions. But that is exactly the kind of moral imagination that we need to rethink the way we approach investing. Because it is just not okay to let financial risk have the final word. If we're smart enough and careful enough, we can offset financial risk. But equally important, what is the risk of not daring, leaving hundreds of millions of people in the dark and watching instability, emissions and migration rise? It means cutting off human potential, possibility, creativity. You see, risk is not just a financial concept. It's an environmental concept, a social concept, and it is most definitely a moral concept. And so, yes, we can structure the right kind of capital, but we need all of the players to go from asking, am I getting the highest return to what is the problem we're trying to solve? What is the capital that is needed and where can I play a role? Also, if you take a long term investors perspectives, think about the hundreds of millions of new electricity consumers that will need new appliances and new innovations and new services. Completely new markets will emerge. We know this because we've seen this. And though this is hard, it is eminently within our reach. In history, there aren't that many chances to do something as big and important and as difficult as bringing electricity to everyone on the planet. But I sometimes ask myself, in a hundred years, what will that generation say about us? Will they gasp in astonishment and say, we were the ones that finally brought electricity and possibility and human dignity to everyone? Or will they wonder, how could they have averted their eyes and left hundreds of millions behind? I hope they say, we learn to control capital and technology and not be controlled by it. I hope they say we cared, that we did hard things, that we loved the world, and in doing so, we set ourselves free. The poet Hafiz wrote, even after all these years, the sun never says to the earth, you owe me. Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the whole sky. So let's get going. Thank you.

[Elise Hu]

That was Jacqueline Novogratz at TED Countdown Summit Nairobi in 2025. If you're curious about Ted's curation, find out [e-mail] curationguidelines and that's it for today's show. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Greene, Lucy Little, Alejandra Salazar and Tonsika Sarmarnivon. It was mixed by Christopher Faizy Bogan. Additional support from Emma Tobner and Daniela Ballaraizo. I'm Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening. This message is brought to you by Apple Card. Each Apple product, like the iPhone 16, is thoughtfully designed by skilled designers. The Titanium Apple Card is no different. It's laser etched, has no numbers, and it earns you daily cash on everything you buy, including 3% back on everything at Apple. Apply for Apple Card on your iPhone in minutes, subject to credit approval. Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch terms and more at applecard.com.

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