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The thesis addresses a vital but neglected area of research – how the sustainable development goal (SDG) of access to safe, clean, and affordable energy can be met in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and what this will mean for other SDGs. With the help of an high resolution integrated assessment model, the study puts the challenge of universal access in the wider context of climate change, energy, and SDGs.

The thesis results point out that, though considerable progress in electricity access will have been made and modest improvements in clean cooking will have strong benefits for human health, current efforts would still leave half a billion people without access to electricity and one billion people without access to clean cooking options in 2030 – with implications for health, poverty, climate, and biodiversity goals. Achieving the universal access target could save the lives of up to a hundred thousand children, reduce fuelwood demand by up to 485 million tons, and cut energy-related residential CO2 emissions by up to 340 Mt annually by 2030. It requires an annual investment of 27-33 billion USD until 2030, considerably higher than the current level of investment. Several fuels and technologies, decentralized and centralized, fossil and renewable, traditional and modern, all play vital roles in achieving universal access to clean and modern energy in SSA.

The thesis emphasizes that energy access policies should be integrated across sectors and the synergies and trade-offs of selected policy instruments should be explored for maximizing the synergies between the targeted policies.