In the wake of international efforts to address climate change, there has been an explosion of efforts to promote investment in low-carbon power production and infrastructure, transport and housing that uses less fossil-fuel energy. These include zero carbon, renewable power generation sources, such as wind, solar and hydro-power and nuclear energy, as well as sources with lower-level emissions such as natural gas, and technologies that prevent or limit atmospheric CO2 emissions, such as carbon capture and storage.

Low carbon power stems from the idea that to reduce carbon emissions, no single technology or solution can handle the problem alone, but the sum of all the possibilities across the transportation, industry, power, agriculture & waste, forestry and buildings sectors, makes the necessary change viable.

Many OECD governments are working on shifting towards low-carbon approaches becoming mainstream rather than niches, using a wide range of vehicles from subsidies to fiscal reform to taxing polluting ‘bads’. The issue has entered mainstream politics, in part due to mainstream public concern. Having worked on mainstreaming access to energy, UNDP is currently working on guidance on mainstreaming sustainable energy in development cooperation.