Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what official development assistance his Department is allocating to the production of sustainable energy in sub-Saharan Africa.

DFID has a substantial and growing portfolio of programmes supporting sustainable energy in Africa.

This includes providing finance for off-grid energy systems to reach the rural poor in Africa, technical assistance to improve African countries’ renewable energy policies, and investing in clean energy research and innovation such as the Faraday Battery Challenge and the Ayrton Fund.

CDC, the UK’s development finance institution, also invests in sustainable energy companies, for example in the world’s largest pay-as-you-go solar company, Kenya’s M-Kopa Solar, as well as Mettle Solar in South Africa, and PEG in Ghana.

The commitment that the UK will double its spend on international climate finance to £11.6 billion by 2026 will lead to increased UK commitment to the provision of sustainable energy in Sub-Saharan Africa.