Rajiv Shah on Advancing Universal Abundant Energy Access

**Rajiv Shah** (0:04)
When you look across all the sustainable development goals, whether it's health or food security or women's empowerment, it is actually energy access that is the key to driving progress across the board. It's finding those areas of intervention that can at scale bring hope, opportunity and dignity to billions of people. And that fundamentally is what the Rockefeller Foundation has been about for 100 plus years.

**Jason Bordoff** (0:28)
Energy abundance means different things in today's global context than it did even a decade ago. It's about expanding electricity access while meeting rising energy demand. It's about navigating geopolitical fragmentation, limited government support and shifting development priorities. And it is about leveraging new technologies to deliver reliable power at scale. But the challenge is not just technological, it's institutional and financial. Many low and middle-income countries face high capital costs, limited access to financing, and policy frameworks that struggle to keep pace with growing demand.
Solving this challenge is a priority for both the Center on Global Energy Policy and, of course, the Rockefeller Foundation. And together, we have launched a new high-level panel to advance Universal Energy Abundance, an idea that positions reliable, affordable energy as a cornerstone of economic growth, industrialization, and opportunity in emerging and developing economies.
So what does it take to move from energy scarcity to energy abundance? Can international institutions, governments, and investors come together to mobilize the scale of investment required? And how can emerging economies balance the urgency of expanding energy access with the need for affordability, reliability, and sustainability?
This is Columbia Energy Exchange, a weekly podcast from the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. I'm Jason Bordoff.
Today on the show, Raj Shah. Raj is the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, where his work is focused on ending energy poverty and ensuring universal access to food. During the Obama administration, he served as USAID administrator. He also served on the National Security Council, where he elevated the role of development as part of a bipartisan foreign policy. And he previously served in the US Department of Agriculture and has held leadership roles at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Raj joined me to discuss our new initiative focused on universal energy abundance. We talked about why making energy not only accessible, but also consistent and abundant can empower communities around the world to thrive. We discussed the new panel's effort to build a policy framework for lenders, for governments, and for developers to drive investments in energy to uplift billions of people globally. And we addressed the larger issues of conflict and climate change that make this work more difficult but also more essential. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Raj Shah, welcome to Columbia Energy Exchange for the first time in the decade-long history of this podcast. What a treat to have you on.

**Rajiv Shah** (3:22)
Well, thank you, Jason. Your work and the work of the group is just brilliant. I'm excited to be with you.

**Jason Bordoff** (3:29)
Thanks.
I know how busy you are, so I'm grateful that you are willing to take the time to talk with us. I'm surprised you didn't cancel, because I assume the streets of Ann Arbor are rife with celebration today, because your alma mater has won the National Championship, and that must be top of mind for you. Congratulations.

**Rajiv Shah** (3:47)
Well, thank you.
I had a long evening last night. As you would imagine, I was born in Ann Arbor, I should point out.

**Jason Bordoff** (3:54)
I forgot, right.

**Rajiv Shah** (3:55)
Proudly bleed blue, and of course, went there as an undergrad and just love it. So well-earned. Well-earned. And honestly, a dominant performance throughout the tournament, like not just one or two games. So I think history will record that this is a special team.

**Jason Bordoff** (4:13)
Well, we'll start on some good news because there's a lot of challenges in the world that we're going to talk about. But congratulations to you and Michigan and all your friends and family and everything in Ann Arbor. We have a lot of things we can talk about, but the immediate purpose in coming together and having a little bit of a conversation, is this really exciting announcement that our organizations are coming together this week to put out, which is a high level panel on energy abundance. And this all started when you called me, I don't remember how many months ago.
And I was just wondering if for people listening, you could sort of like play back that conversation. Because what I remember was points you were making about how for all the extraordinary work the Rockefeller Foundation does to promote economic development around the world. And energy is central to that agenda. And we wanted to tackle it in an ambitious and maybe innovative way. So talk a little bit about why you think energy is so central to that mission.