The global green transition is often described as a collective response to climate change. Yet in many parts of the world, this transition is not unfolding through national scale grids or multi-million dollar data centers. Rather, it is arriving through solar panels on roof tops or charging phones, mobile payments for electricity, or hydropower projects delivering energy locally to rural communities. While seemingly a product of constraint, these technologies can provide a glimpse of the future sustainable energy economy. As clean energy technologies rapidly grow across the world, they are not only reducing emissions, but redrawing the map of economic competition.
The emergence of green technology provides a significant opportunity for developing economies. The global demand for energy is ever increasing, with much of that growth in emerging markets, where urbanization has caused clean energy markets to expand rapidly.
With clean energy markets scaling, space for growth has been created in solar manufacturing, battery storage, and energy systems. Unlike traditional fossil fuel systems, emerging economies have the ability to bypass traditional and costly infrastructure in favor of new clean technology, to become early adopters and participants in new and growing markets.
Sustainable Innovation
Across the Global South, constraint serves not as a barrier to innovation, but rather as a force that shapes it. Limited infrastructure, constrained capital, and disadvantageous access to resources means that innovation is often driven from necessity, and designed under pressure to meet the needs of an ever growing population and economy.
Future increases in global energy consumption are projected to come from the Global South, making the need for flexible and scalable solutions even more urgent. However, affordability stands in the way of many countries in the Global South adopting sustainable energy solutions, due to fossil fuels providing a cheaper route for populations without previous access to electricity.
Yet innovative clean energy solutions can prioritize scalability, affordability, and reliability, leading to decentralized, adaptable, and efficient sustainable technology. Several new technologies across Africa and South Asia already demonstrate how these solutions are being implemented in practice.
- Decentralized Energy Systems: Microgrids and Solar Farms in Bangladesh and India:
Microgrids and mini-solar farms generate electricity locally, often in areas without traditional grid centralization and reliability. In India, microgrids have provided consistent power to households, businesses, and rural communities, aiding national electrification efforts through the expansion of clean energy sources. In Bangladesh, Grameen Shakti has demonstrated the scalability of local solar solutions to bring reliable electricity to populations without traditional grid access, fostering local economic development and the growth of rural communities.
- Pay as you go solar energy: M KOPA in Kenya
M-KOPA is expanding energy access through pay-as-you-go solar systems that allow households to install solar panels with minimal upfront cost. Through mobile payments, households can afford costly solar panels through payment plans using the energy produced by their solar panel to pay off the product and provide household electricity. This model makes electricity more affordable and accessible for low-income households, combining digital infrastructure with clean energy.
- Clean Energy stoves, BURN Manufacturing in Kenya
BURN Manufacturing produces energy efficient stoves designed to reduce fuel consumption and air pollution. These stoves provide a low cost yet impactful solution to reduce emissions and in developing regions. By minimizing everyday energy use through an affordable and reliable solution, BURN Manufacturing displays how sustainability can function at a household level.
- The National Mini and Micro Hydro Users Society (NAMHUS) in Nepal
Small-scale hydropower systems in Nepal utilize local rivers to generate electricity for rural communities without costly centralized infrastructure. Supported by organizations such as NAMHUS, renewable energy provides reliable energy solutions to local communities in geographically challenging regions.
Urgency of Innovation
While these innovations are emerging in response to regional needs and constraints, they are also unfolding within a global race to define the future of clean technology. The clean energy transition is accelerating, with global energy demand projected to grow by 2.8% annually through 2030. Solar, hydro, and wind energy must grow to meet the increasing demand, allowing early adopters to become increasingly influential. Clean energy investment has exploded since 2020, with $2.2 trillion dollars invested into clean energy globally in 2025.
Countries that develop early production capacity will be better able to shape global energy supply. This can allow developing economies to become producers and consumers of sustainable technology and energy. While only 15% of global clean energy investments are flowing into emerging markets, 85% of new energy demand is expected to come from the Global South. This creates a narrowing window of opportunity for countries in the Global South to become pioneers in the technology and energy spaces. However, the Global South is already taking advantage of this window, with solar and wind generation growing at 23% annually. With 70% of global renewable energy potential, the Global South is rich in renewables. This includes natural resources such as reliable solar energy, vast wind capabilities, and hydro capacity, enabling a sustainable market capture with investment.
This rapid expansion is also being reinforced by policy commitments such as the Global Renewables and Energy Efficiency Pledge at COP28. Countries pledged to triple the global renewable energy capacity and double the global annual rate of energy efficiency improvement by 2030, signalling urgency and commitment to clean energy. 118 countries committed to the Renewable Energy Pledge, with many states voicing support globally for tripling renewable energy by 2030. Such policy commitments will allow for a significant increase in energy production capabilities, with a focus on those without access to electricity, many of whom reside in the Global South. This will allow for the expansion of the clean energy sector, both reducing climate change, and providing more people with reliable energy sources.
Figure 1: Share of the Global South by energy demand
Constraint and Competition
The green economy is transforming the face of global energy and restructuring global industrial needs. It requires new capacity in manufacturing for batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines, as well as new supply chains and technological development.
Developing countries face unique challenges and advantages in clean energy. While some nations currently lack production capabilities and necessary infrastructure, high urban growth and decentralized systems allow unique advantages not experienced in developed economies.
Decentralized systems foster local energy production, where microgrids can be deployed near large demand centers, reducing reliance on costly centralized energy plants. Rapid urbanization generates large demand centers without traditional fossil-fuel-based centralized systems. Without a centralized grid, microgrids can provide a faster and more sustainable alternative to traditional systems. For developing economies, high urban growth and decentralized systems strengthen their position to become both early producers and consumers of clean energy to meet a rapidly growing energy demand.
The structure of clean technologies creates many new market entry possibilities. While traditional fossil fuel systems rely on centralized infrastructure and large-scale capital investment, green technologies can be modular, decentralized, and easily scalable. This lowers the barriers for the production and deployment of clean energy technologies, creating opportunities for local production and innovation. In economies that lack a centralized grid, sustainable technologies naturally align into such environments. Microgrids, modular battery energy storage, and local solar farms prove the viability of localized energy systems, providing solutions for infrastructure gaps, and demonstrating the reliability of flexible and distributed energy generation.
With rapid urbanization and growing production potential, the Global South is a key hotspot for clean energy expansion. As cities continue to grow and energy demand rises, these regions have the ability to both consume and produce clean energies at scale. However, current clean energy investment in the Global South lags behind the Global North, standing at only 15% of the $2.2 trillion invested into clean energy. Gaps in infrastructure, limited access to capital, and income inequity continue to slow the widespread deployment of sustainable technologies. As a result, advancing the energy transition depends on solutions that are not only clean, but also affordable, reliable, and scalable, to meet the rapidly increasing demand for energy.
Conclusion
The global energy demand and the demand for renewable energy is accelerating and driving innovation, reshaping what sustainability looks like. Renewable energy now accounts for 32% of global electricity capacity, with countries such as Uruguay, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Kenya already generating over 90% of electricity from renewables. However, the beneficiaries of sustainable investment remain uneven, with the Global South receiving a mere fraction of clean energy investment.
The clean energy transition is happening now and is not a question of technological progress, but of scale, investment and global coordination. It reflects shared environmental goals, challenges, and progress, transforming the face of energy. The Global South has already innovated in the face of constraint, and now is the time to create a lasting presence in the clean technology space before the current window of opportunity closes.
Questions for the Reader:
- Where do you think the next clean technology hotspot will be?
- In what ways do you think that energy production will change in the next 10 years? Or 30 years?