Target 7.b: Expand energy infrastructure in developing countries
By 2030, expand infrastructure and upgrade technology for supplying modern and sustainable energy services for all in developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing States, and land-locked developing countries, in accordance with their respective programmes of support
Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
Why shareholder democracy is necessary
Sub-Saharan Africa has about 40 watts per capita of installed renewable capacity against more than 1,100 in developed economies. The IEA reports Africa's energy investment is one-third lower than in 2015, with debt servicing costs exceeding 85 percent of the continent's total energy investment. Listed utilities, independent power producers, equipment makers and banks decide whether capital reaches these markets, so owner pressure on where those companies put their money is a necessary input. Sovereign risk, grants and concessional finance from governments remain equally necessary. Shareholder pressure on bank clean energy financing ratios in the 2024 proxy season is the closest documented voting precedent. Owners supply a necessary input, and governments and concessional lenders must also act.
How this was scoredNecessary
Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Energy access improving, but international financial support still needed to boost progress and address disparities, International Energy Agency, 2025-06-25
- World Energy Investment 2025, Executive summary, International Energy Agency, 2025
- Investors drive banks toward greater transparency on climate in 2024 proxy season, Ceres, 2024-05-24
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Ran a 2024 exempt solicitation at Bank of America urging a vote against the chair of the Enterprise Risk Committee over reversed fossil fuel financing restrictions and support for the clean energy financing ratio proposal.
3 campaigns on record
Vote against Clayton S. Rose, chair of the Enterprise Risk Committee, because the bank reversed its commitment not to directly finance Arctic oil, thermal coal mines or new coal plants, and vote for the clean energy financing ratio proposal.
Result: not stated in source
Disclose a clean energy financing ratio.
Result: At the 24 April 2024 annual meeting, 1,451,986,553 votes for, 4,138,376,010 against, 53,024,345 abstentions (about 26 percent of votes cast for and against); not approved.
Disclose annually a clean energy supply financing ratio showing financing for low-carbon energy supply as a proportion of financing for fossil fuel energy supply.
Result: At the 24 April 2024 annual meeting, 66,832,803 votes for, 164,980,082 against, 2,489,646 abstentions (about 29 percent of votes cast for and against); not approved.
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.