Editor’s Note: Chanuk Thang is a young expert in the Global Governance Innovation Network. This commentary is part of the GGIN’s Next Generation Experts series, which aims to elevate youth research and writing. Chanuk Thang’s interests and research center on economic policy, development financing, energy economics, and Southeast Asian economic integration.

By Richard Ponzio, Director, Global Governance, Justice & Security Program

In July 2025, world leaders gathered in Sevilla, Spain for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), where 192 United Nations Member States adopted the Sevilla Commitment, a pledge to close the $4 trillion annual gap in financing for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They reached consensus without the United States, historically the source of 25-30% of global development assistance, which withdrew from the process before the final text was agreed. The outcome also stepped back from an existing commitment: It dropped language on rationalizing inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, agreed a decade earlier in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. More than a year later, with four years left until 2030, the question is whether that pledge is translating into results. SDG 7, the commitment to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all, offers one of the clearest tests. 

With Four Years Left, Progress on SDG 7 Remains Uneven

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 found that of the 139 targets with sufficient data, only 15% are on track, and 21% are making moderate progress, while 49% are advancing marginally or not at all. SDG 7 reflects this broader pattern: Progress is real but too slow to meet the 2030 deadline. Access to clean, reliable, and efficient energy underpins progress on education, health, gender equality, and decent work, so shortfalls on SDG 7 slow progress across the entire 2030 Agenda. Gains in electricity access have slowed to just .35 percentage points a year since 2020, while reaching universal access by 2030 would require a pace nearly four times faster. 

As of 2024, 655 million people still lacked electricity, 86% of them in sub-Saharan Africa, and more than 2 billion relied on polluting fuels and technologies for cooking. Decentralized renewable energy solutions offer a cost-effective path to reach rural and remote communities, but implementation depends on financing that has not scaled to match the need. Four years out, the open question is whether international cooperation under SDG 7, led by institutions such as the World Bank and African Development Bank, can mobilize that financing fast enough.   

Although global electricity access rose to 92% in 2023, the pace is still too slow to reach everyone, and those still without power are concentrated in rural and  remote communities that are the most expensive to connect. The World Bank and African Development Bank’s Mission 300 initiative, launched in 2024, has brought electricity to more than 50 million people across 40 African countries, toward its goal of reaching 300 million people by 2030. Much of this progress has come through decentralized solutions such as solar home systems and mini-grids, which can reach rural communities faster and at low cost. Other parts of SDG 7 are lagging further behind. Energy efficiency improved by only an estimated 1.8% in 2025, less than half the 4% annual rate needed to meet the COP28 commitment to double efficiency improvements by 2030. The pattern is consistent: Financing has reached parts of SDG 7, but unevenly, and the countries further behind have received the least. 

What Sevilla Left Unresolved: Financing as the Fault Line

Sevilla’s decision to drop language on reducing fossil fuel subsidies shows why progress on SDG 7 financing is lagging. Governments spent an estimated $620 billion on fossil fuel subsidies in 2023, money that could help close the funding gap for universal electricity access. At the same time, many developing economies cannot afford to borrow more, and private investors avoid clean energy projects where regulatory uncertainty and currency risk threaten returns. What matters is how funding is delivered, not just how much is invested. 

Sustainable financing instruments should move from the sidelines to the center. Multilateral development banks can take on the early-stage and currency risk that keeps private investors away, through guarantees, blended finance, and local currency lending. In Sevilla, Member States committed to tripling the lending capacity of these multilateral development banks, giving developing economies an alternative to more costly borrowing. Green bonds can also increase the sources of funding for SDG 7. Results-based financing, which pays providers only once connections are delivered, creates a more accountable system for results rather than promises. 

Mission 300 shows how this can work. Instead of making another pledge, the World Bank and African Development Bank help African governments carry out National Energy Compacts, country-led plans that link electricity access goals directly to regulatory and policy reforms, with progress tracked along the way. This approach ties funding to measurable results, which SDG 7 commitments have lacked.

Turning Commitments Into Delivery

The coming months give Member states a chance to close the gap Sevilla left open on measurable commitments. The IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings (October 12-18, Bangkok, Thailand) brought together finance ministers, central banks, and development banks that control much of the financing SDG 7 needs. These meetings were an opportunity to act on what Sevilla promised: expanding guarantees, advancing subsidy reform, and bringing Mission 300-style compacts beyond Africa. At COP31 (November 9-20, Antalya, Turkey), Member States can make energy access and clean cooking part of their climate plans and commit to climate finance. 

Neither forum is built to track the SDGs, and that is part of the problem. A UN expert group has warned that scattered finance makes it hard to line up climate and development goals. The UN High-level Dialogue on Energy made a similar point in 2021, highlighting that energy commitments lacked accountability. The Sevilla Commitment offers a fix: It invites Member States to name national focal points and report progress at the annual FfD Forum. Member States should use this for SDG 7, starting with the states furthest behind and setting yearly goals for electricity, clean cooking, renewables, and efficiency. Without those numbers, no one can tell if a promise was kept, and the 655 million people without electricity have no way to hold anyone accountable. The question is whether a fragmented international system can get financing to the countries that need it most, and whether Member States will hold themselves to account for doing so.