into account the repercussions of COVID-19. Bringing electricity to unserved populations comes with difficulty including affordability, reliability and the cost of deploying final solutions. This is particularly applicable in low income, remote or conflict-affected countries. Finance for energy access remains far below the investment needed to achieve SDG 7 by 2030: US$41 billion of annual investment is required to achieve universal residential electrification, but only one third, or $16 billion, was tracked by Sustainable Energy for All in 20 high-impact countries in 2018. Finance for clean cooking tripled from $48 million in 2017 to $131 million in 2018 but remains substantially below the estimated annual $4.5 billion required to achieve universal access by 2030. With only marginal year-on-year increases in commitments for energy, it is becoming increasingly clear that the financing community is failing to deliver on SDG7. Target 7.2: Increase global percentage of renewable energy The second target of SDG 7 is Target 7.2: "By 2030, increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix." It has only one indicator: Indicator 7.2.1 is the "Renewable energy share in the total final energy consumption". Renewable energy accounted for 17.5% of global total energy consumption in 2016, 10.2% with biomass excluded. Of the three end uses of renewables (electricity, heat, and transport) the use of renewables grew fastest with respect to electricity. This was driven by the expansion of wind and solar technologies. Renewables still face persistent financial, regulatory, and sometimes technological barriers. Target 7.3: Double the improvement in energy efficiency The third target of SDG 7 is Target 7.3: "By 2030, double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency". It has one indicator: Indicator 7.3.1 is the "Energy intensity measured in terms of primary energy and GDP". Global primary energy intensity needs to drop from 5.6 megajoules (MJ) per U.S. dollar in 2010 to 3.4 by 2030 to achieve the SDG 7.3 target. According to Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report, the global primary energy intensity in 2018 was 4.75 MJ/US$ (2017 PPP), after a 1.1 percent global annual improvement. This is well below the annual 2.6 percent initially projected as a prerequisite to reaching the target of SDG 7.3, which now requires an average annual rate of 3 percent every year from 2018 through 2030 to meet the goal. A report in 2019 found that energy efficiency improvements have increased steadily in recent years, thanks