The world is racing ahead with enormous investments in renewable energy, for the first time this year plowing more money into solar power than oil. But the world’s poorest countries, mostly in Africa, are effectively priced out of the action by a global lending system that considers them too risky for investment. Only 2 percent of global investment in renewable energy has been in Africa, where nearly a billion people have little or no access to electricity. Clean energy projects would help stabilize their countries and economies, they say, reducing the very risk that investors say they fear. It’s an issue that looms large this week at a climate summit in Kenya, as it will at climate talks sponsored by the United Nations later this year in Dubai.

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Persons: Archip Lobo Organizations: United Nations Locations: Africa, Kenya, Dubai, Congo