Key messages

• Refugees have limited access to national grid systems. These are due to affordability and political constraints.

• Injustices are created and reinforced within humanitarian energy supply and by climate action policies for forcibly displaced people.

• Off-grid solar technologies can provide access for refugees and fill some of the gaps created by a lack of grid access. Off-grid systems can provide low-carbon electricity for both refugee households and humanitarian organizations working in displacement settings.

• To change the situation, humanitarian actors and national governments would need to commit to institutional reform and political change to deliver electrification at scale and to connect refugee households and businesses to electricity grids.

• Critical evidence is needed to foster change to improve the current situation, and to better understand how to ensure that refugee communities are included in the pursuit of global goals to provide affordable, clean energy access for all.