Giving Compass' Take:

• Suleiman Jasir Al-Herbish, director-general and chief executive officer of OFID, argues that getting modern energy sources to those living without it must not wait for renewable energy. 

• How can donors expedite the clean energy access process? How should donors balance the need for energy with environmental needs? 

• Learn about renewable energy in Haiti.

The effort to reach Sustainable Development Goal 7 on “affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all” is being hampered by an overemphasis on renewables, according to the head of the OPEC Fund for International Development, or OFID.

The development finance institution was established by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries — a coordinating body for some of the biggest oil producing countries — in the 1970s, and says it has dispersed $22 billion to thousands of projects since then.

Unlike the United Nations-backed Sustainable Energy for All initiative, OFID’s $1 billion energy plan is called Energy for the Poor.

Speaking to Devex at the Sustainable Energy for All Forum in Lisbon, Portugal, this month, Suleiman Jasir Al-Herbish, director-general and chief executive officer of the fund since November 2003, said the difference in terminology is no accident.

A spokesperson said that since its inception in 1976, OFID has committed $22 billion in total, including $5 billion to more than 400 energy projects. Of that, 27 percent, or $1.4 billion, has gone to 165 operations with a renewable energy component. Among the largest renewables projects in a selection provided to Devex were $61 million in private sector support approved this year for the Nachtigal Hydropower Company in Cameroon, and $45 million last year for a solar energy development project in Cuba.

Read the full article about clean energy and energy poverty by Vince Chadwick at Devex International Development.