Challenges to energy transition in the global south: A review of the evidence–ranking and proposed solutions

Co Authored: Anthony Afful-Dadzie, Stephen Kobby Mensah, Alexandra Mallett

Summary: An important cornerstone of energy transition, increasing renewable energy adoption, has never become more apparent given growing environmental stressors such as the climate crisis, prompting the need to stay within planetary boundaries. This is particularly the case in the global South given these places are often more vulnerable to climate impacts as they tend to possess more limited resources and measures to contend with such changes, while concurrently they are projected to grow substantially in the coming decades. Within such a context of limited resources and increased pressures, policy makers and practitioners must make decisions on where to focus their time and effort. As countries in the global South embark upon actions to support energy transition including renewable energy uptake, an important question therefore is how to prioritize which challenges to address and which options to pursue. Consequently, this paper provides a systematic review of nearly 150 peer-reviewed articles on the challenges impeding energy transition in the global South to put into perspective their relative importance according to academic research, and to document their proposed solutions or options to address these challenges. Six categories of challenges were most prevalent in the literature. Namely, politics and policy, financial, technology, environmental, social, and socio-technical. Analysis of the relevant literature under these categories shows that the challenge that has received the most attention in academic literature is politics and policy (24.2%). This is followed by technology (23.9%), social (20.7%), financial (19.2%), socio-technical (8.2%), and environmental (3.8%) in that order. This result means that while technology and financial aspects are clearly seen as a challenge, politics and policy which speaks of the role of power, as well as social, which relates to the role of people, can greatly advance and/or hinder energy transition in the global South. Furthermore, environmental issues are increasingly acknowledged as being complex, societal challenges, requiring transdisciplinary approaches. However, the findings also suggest a dearth of research on issues related to the environment, and systems-based approaches that highlight the integration of energy transition technology within the host social systems.

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