Thank you, francis. Thank you. We are delighted to have you both. You give us a global snapshot of Energy Poverty and the repercussions for gender equity and employment in the areas of the world most affected . Thank you, thank you again. About what the foundation has done under the leadership of the secretary is looking at how we can and this global problem of Energy Poverty. What is the Global Landscape space . 3. 2 ofccounts for only the 2700 kilowatt hours generated. [indiscernible] only asia with india is 8. 5 . Southafrica but also africa. America is 4. 9 . When you look at those three, africa is 3. 9 . Are large swaths of the global space that is energy poor. What we talk about as it relates , and that iscrisis [indiscernible] say one of the things the pandemic is shown as is if we do not have energy we cannot even solve the health crisis. On the continent we have a lot of obstacles. Universal access is a critical part of what we are considering as part of the policy for ending Energy Poverty. That means looking at the whole [indiscernible] of distribution. One of the things we have seen is there is a fourth line in the distribution so a lot of the around what we can do with [indiscernible] you link generation, transmission to distribution and ensure we can get to the last mile . Low Energy Consumption across the globe cannot get what we are looking for. [indiscernible] two sustainable affordable electricity. Concern, andbal especially what we have been trying to understand is a way that continuously challenges the public and private sector and it shows we have a way to do it in that is sustainable. This a big ruralurban divide . People cooking with wood. I would like to get a sense of the personal impact before we move on to factories. Million women2 across the world that die from respiratory diseases [indiscernible] and that is the energy linkage. It is a ruralurban divide as well. The same is true of south america and south asia. The cities tend to have 70 or 20 or lessural access to energy and women in particular. Inclusiveking at an and more sustainable design, which shows we can protect the trees. There is a lot going on to see how we can restore our green environment. And ensurehat [indiscernible] and women still need to go out and look for wood. There is another conversation. Lets turn to you, secretary. One of the cochairs of the commission to end Energy Poverty. Committed tohow reform the commissioners are. Are we talking about a problem that is also in more developed countries around the world . Francis, let me first make a couple of comments expanding on what vera said. We will be focusing on the Commission First on electricity. The cooking issue that you have raised is so critical. There is a documentary recently switch on, that i would recommend, and it has an emotional scene in terms of medical requirements of women and children suffering the respiratory consequences of indoor biomass cooking. In fact [no audio] six of all of his patients were women and children with respiratory illness. [indiscernible] we cannot have womens empowerment, and have them engaged in the economy until these issues are resolved. That is very important. On the commission, to go back to that, first of all there are myself with my hat at m. I. T. Where the analysis raj shah rahd particularly emphasizes that the Rockefeller Foundation support this work because addressing Energy Poverty is a necessary condition for addressing poverty more generally, so that is the perspective that he brought to the table. Is therd cochair president of the African Development bank and clearly while in Subsaharan Africa is not the commission, it is the bank brings so the that perspective of how were going to bring together the capital to have the kinds of transitions we have. The commission was rounded out by many others. For example, investors in infrastructure like africa 50. But government and quasi government officials who will have enormous responsibilities that we will perhaps come back to and a number of individuals who have long experience in for example, initiatives such as power africa, which was started in the Obama Administration to address the electricity and lighting needs in in africa specifically. But youre also right that the Energy Access issue is not one just in developing countries. Clearly, theres a major focus. Hundreds of millions of people without proper Energy Access. One could argue about 1 3 of the global population without adequate Energy Services. But right here in the United States if one goes to things like the native american lands, one finds a very, very disheartening lack of Energy Services in many cases. So this is a big problem. Its absolutely critical. And i would just say that as well, you mentioned briefly covid. When the commission started just over a year ago, i dont think any of us dreamed that today because of the covid crisis we probably have more people without electricity access than we had a year ago. Because many who gained access, you know, these countries always catch the cold first when theres a global event. The Economic Impact does not help people afford the excess so hard won over the past few years. Doctor, you are on the commission. The goal is universal access. Thats going to involve partnerships between utilities, investors. What do those partnerships look like . And what are the barriers in different parts of the world . What are you up against . We have done a couple of actually, were not up against as much as it is trying to see whether we can bring the right coalitions together. And i think, the coalition and the commission is one of them. The secretary already talked about the fact that we have that in the Public Sector and some of Civil Society with us and actually the academics as well. I think, for example, the partnership that we have, for example, with westward africa under the operation and also the Sustainable Development group that was set up by the United Nations secretarygeneral essentially that brings together , a very substantial group of private sector investors, billions of dollars, interested in looking for Renewable Energy. And when you look at the african continent, only 2 of global new Renewable Energy capacity was installed in africa over the last 10 years. So for all the conversations that we have around Renewable Energy, the drop in the cost of Renewable Energy and the need , for more investment, africa has only been able to attract 2 of that. One of the things were trying to understand is what is it that is stopping or hindering those kinds of investments . A big part of it. And thats one of the things the commission talks about when they talk about the integrated framework is the fact that the distribution, the Utility Companies because of not the appropriate tariff adjustments and thats the conversation you had, what are we up against . Were up against Affordable Energy and the financing to build that Affordable Energy. Is howthe issues is how can wet can we do projects with local currency . When you do a plant, but citizens most often are paying for that energy in local currency that is also subject to the variations of microeconomics and the covid crisis and led many of them depreciating for example, it becomes very expensive. They cannot afford to pay any of those p. P. A. There contracts were suspended and energy gets cut off. So we need to be able to find some way of doing reflective and to do that we need to move to more local currency financing of the investments were putting in place. Of course the overall macroeconomic environment is quite an important one to put investment into those sectors. Another thing that is very important is building local, Technical Assistance for africa. What were doing actually, were partners with the commission now and others, is to launch what were calling the team energy africa, which is essentially bringing together all the african industrial manufacturers of Energy Together to say what can we do . Theres a team europe. There was up with in africa that was launched by the United States, and we hope we can form a cluster when they come under the d. S. C. And others to say we have to do this in partnership. Probably when we do that, we can find local Insurance Companies that can buy this investment. I think its a cluster of things. First, you need to bring in continental producers. Weve seen that in india because there are indian supplier of energies in the energy sector. Bring in continental producers. Weve seen that in india because there are indian supplier of energies in the energy sector. We can see that access is increasing at a much faster rate. We believe we should emulate Something Like that on the african continent. And hopefully there as well. Is there one small model that things are working well that youre trying to broaden . Well, i think that , you know, the the the attraction of independent energy has done really well. Many other countries have started that seneca, south africa has been the leader in this. We see a lot of progress and investment. A project that was launched by the i. S. C. Is the solid power project, which has been scaling forward. We have it in seneca. In morocco were doing something. We need standardization of this program. You can standardize it. Investors know what to expect. The country know what is to offer and it makes it much easier to close on those deals. Secretary moniz, could you talk to us about other progress that could make a big difference in this area . Secretary moniz certainly the Technology Progress in providing energy and in particular clean energy has been very, very dramatic. Solar energy, wind energy, including the storage that one needs to be able to use the for example, the solar energy at night as opposed to during the day, the rapid cost reductions here, i think are going to provide dramatic opportunities o have support for african buildout quite rapidly of the new the new energy technologies. But a couple of points i do want to emphasize, we have to recognize, and one of the one of the pill lars really of the pillars really of the commissions work is we cannot look at offgrid and ongrid solutions as two different things. We need the integration of on and offgrid solutions. Because the issues it isnt about ideology in terms of how one best to does to have distributed generation or the like. Its about universal access. And the universal Access Solutions are going to have to be looked at in an integrated way with the combined if urban and rural populations of these countries. Technology is going to allow that to happen more easily. But i think actually its actually worth stating that just like everywhere in the world, the projections, the demographic projections continued enormous urbanization in in africa. O so i think we need to not have, you know, everything looks like a nail because i have a hammer. We have multiple technologies, multiple ways of integrating them, using i. T. You alluded to i. T. For example. Using i. T. To to really serve the population that needs universal access. In sing that, again something you alluded to earlier for instance, maybe well come back to it, but the reality is, and frankly, when i speak with africans who are very knowledgeable about the, you know, the developments and energy that are needed, that would include vera, the they all say that, look, we have to sahara africa, in sub africa a Real Development on industrialization. And so thats going to require well certainly for some considerable period a more internal utilization in africa of the enormous natural gas finds that have been happening in both east and west africa. We have to keep in mind the goals, Economic Development, universal access, and of course, as low carbonate trajectory as can be realized in putting together a coherent solution. And again, universal access, integration of on and off grid, focus on development and as vera said, creating financially viable systems to provide the the electricity, the energy, not with a short term focus but with a longterm focus all must come together. And it will be technology, but it will also be things like significant elevation and best practices, etc. , in terms of regulation, without stable, predictable regulation, it will be very hard for the kind of load serving entitys that we need to to really put in the Capital Investment to serve the peoples needs. Just quickly if you can, and these are all big questions. Tell me where the private sector fits in here . How do we make sure that they t in the interest of Broad Development rather their own interest . Whats their role, and how do you regulate their investment . Secretary moniz the private sector, theyre absolutely essential because otherwise it will be hard to see the capital accumulation that one needs to to realize the Development Hat we are hoping for. Again, i dont see its no different in africa or anywhere else. If its private capital coming , some certainty for a substantial period, call it 20 years, a concession being awarded for example with specific mile stones for universal access, reliable access to to electricity that has to come. And frankly and vera could comment on this probably more expertly than i, but lets just say those conditions are very uneven at the moment in in sub saharan africa. I think we need to bring the best practices, which have been demonstrated in various places to bear. For example, one of the recommendations of the commission is to establish an African School of regulation, maybe at one of the universities in africa, for example, and really bring a cutting edge experience of regulation across the globe to bear, so that there can be more uniformity. Uniformity across countries will also encourage other important developments such as Regional Power pools where several countries can coming to regionally and provide more efficient, more reliable, more affordable electricity as a regional effort. Clearly, if you have different policies, different rules across boundaries, that becomes very, very difficult. So theres a lot to do. But by the way, were very encouraged in terms of progress towards this Regulatory School for example of being founded, well see. But its looking quite promising. Were short of time. But i will able to ask you a couple of questions sent in by readers. Im going to read this. This is barry moore from virginia who asks how would you characterize chinas Economic Impact in africa . Thank you for that question. And let me use that question to answer a little bit of what were talking about. China africa has decided, you know, were going to go to net zero. However, between now and getting to net zero, africa still needs to grow. We need to you know, insure that our economies have the right Energy Production to go. One of the areas where africa has an abundance of raw material for Energy Production is gas and hydro. Hydro is one of the leading, you now, builders [indiscernible] one of things were doing is working with the french, working with the americans to make sure we do build the right kinds of hydro power plants on the continent but also that we begin [no audio] i think we have a little interruption in our connection which were trying to rebuild at the moment. So please stay with us. Secretary moniz i can inject something on the african front. I think one of the issues that i think as many countries, vera mentioned several come in and be rt of the build of the to astructure, that i think build up local capacity, use local workforces. Frankly, i think china may be not quite there in terms of the necessary building of indigenous capacity. I think we have dr. Songwe back with us. Did you want to finish . Ok. Maybe not. Thank you both very much. Im sorry about that little interruption at the segment. But it was a fascinating conversation. I will be back in a few minutes. [indiscernible] thank you very much to both of you. Secretary moniz thank you. Hello, im elyse labott. Today were talk tact Global Commission to end Energy Poverty founded by the Rockefeller Commission to galvanize the delivering of Cost Effective electricity access to hundreds of millions of underserved homes and businesses. Im joined by aspen dial who leads the Climate Initiative and rob stoner, Deputy Director at the m. I. T. Energy initiative, which is working rock fell tore produce High Quality Research data and evidence behind these goals. Lets talk with you and talk about the ties between poverty and the lack of access to energy. I hear you at rockefeller call it the socalled global thread human ves together Pro Development and sustainbility human viability. Well, thank you. If you think about the relations