The Big Switch

Subnational pathways to scale clean electrification

Accelerating clean electrification through subnational leadership, while enabling states and regions to unlock growth, strengthen energy security, and deliver the transition at scale.

Electrification is no longer only a technology challenge. It is a delivery and coordination challenge.

“Global ambition for the energy transition has been set. Clean electrification is a key pillar in achieving it, but it will not be delivered at speed and scale without subnational leadership. Delivery happens locally.”

- Andrew Forth. Head of Policy and Advocacy Governance & Policy

Join the Subnational Electrification Working Group

About the Big Switch

The Big Switch is a global initiative of the Under2 Coalition focused on accelerating clean electrification through subnational leadership. By coordinating action across sectors, systems, and stakeholders, it enables the practical delivery of electrification at scale, unlocking economic growth, energy security, and decarbonisation.

It forms part of Climate Group’s broader efforts to support the global phase out of fossil fuels by enabling a shift toward clean, electrified energy systems across transport, industry, and buildings.

The initiative brings together states and regions to move beyond ambition and support the practical, bottom-up delivery of electrification. It explores how subnational governments can align policy, infrastructure, and investment to scale electrification while capturing economic opportunities.

It provides a platform to co-create a subnational policy framework for delivery of clean electrification at scale, grounded in real-world implementation.

Through a structured process of engagement, the initiative focuses on:

Identifying barriers and opportunities to scaling clean electrification
Supporting peer learning and exchange across regions
Engaging relevant stakeholders across the electrification value chain
Co-developing implementation-ready actions grounded in real-world conditions

This work represents the first phase of a broader effort to develop a subnational clean electrification programme under the Under2 Coalition, informed by practical experience and designed to support delivery at scale.

Why Electrification, Why Now?

Electrification is becoming the backbone of a net zero economy and a defining driver of energy security, competitiveness, economic resilience, and long-term growth. Despite this opportunity, electrification is not scaling at the pace required.

The gap between ambition and delivery remains significant:

Around 730 million people still lack access to electricity globally
Fossil fuels still account for roughly 80% of global primary energy use
Electricity represents only around 21% of final energy demand today
Up to 70% of final energy demand could ultimately be electrified
Around three quarters of the world’s population live in countries that rely on imported fossil fuels, with net importers spending approximately $1.7 trillion in 2024
The European Union alone imported €375.9 billion worth of energy in 2024, highlighting exposure to volatile fossil fuel markets
Around 40% of countries spend more than 3% of GDP on net fossil fuel imports, effectively exporting economic value abroad
As fuel prices rise, costs increase rapidly. For every $10 per barrel increase in oil prices, global net import costs rise by around $160 billion per year
Global grid infrastructure requires an estimated $5.8 trillion in investment by 2035 to support electrification at scale
A rapid shift to clean electricity systems could double energy-sector productivity in low- to middle-income economies within 25 years
In many countries, this could contribute to GDP increases of around 10% by mid-century

What's holding electrification back?

Clean electrification is not scaling fast enough.

The challenge is no longer whether electrification is possible. In many sectors, the technologies already exist and are ready to scale. The challenge is delivering electrification at pace.

Electrification is being slowed by a combination of structural barriers:

Grid constraints and long connection timelines
Fragmented planning and permitting systems
Misaligned investment signals and financing gaps
Uneven progress across regions and sectors
Workforce and supply chain constraints
Lack of coordination across sectors, infrastructure systems, and stakeholders

Subnational leadership is critical to enabling the coordination needed to unlock electrification at speed and scale.

Why states and regions matter?

Delivery happens locally.

States and regions shape the pace of electrification through decisions on planning, permitting, infrastructure, procurement, and economic development. They sit at the intersection of demand, infrastructure, and investment, making them critical to turning ambition into implementation.

They influence the key levers that determine whether electrification can scale:

Planning and permitting systems
Transport networks and charging infrastructure
Building standards and retrofit programmes
Public procurement and budget flows
Local infrastructure and industrial development planning

Subnational governments are the critical leverage point to unlock electrification at scale. They control the last mile of delivery, where infrastructure is built, demand emerges, and investment decisions are realised.

Regions that move faster to align demand, supply, and infrastructure will attract investment, strengthen competitiveness, and capture the economic benefits of electrification.

Where electrification needs to accelerate

Electrification must scale across the most fossil fuel, dependent parts of the economy:

Transport: Transport remains heavily dependent on oil despite rapid progress in electric mobility. Significant gaps remain in EV deployment, charging infrastructure, freight electrification, and grid readiness.
Industry: Around 85% of industrial heat is still fossil fuel-based, even though a substantial share can already be electrified using existing technologies. Deployment is constrained by infrastructure, costs, and policy uncertainty.
Buildings: Heating remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels, despite the availability of heat pumps, rooftop solar, and smart energy systems. Deployment is slowed by installation capacity, financing, permitting, and grid readiness.
Grid Infrastructure: Electrification speed will depend on resilient and modernised grid infrastructure that can deliver clean electricity reliably. Grid bottlenecks, ageing infrastructure, and long connection delays are slowing both supply and demand.

Why a bottom-up approach is needed

The electrification challenge is global, but delivery is inherently local.

Infrastructure is built locally, demand emerges regionally, and investment decisions are shaped by place-based conditions. Scaling electrification therefore requires coordination and alignment across policy, infrastructure, and investment—tailored to regional realities.

A bottom-up approach is essential to:
- Address local infrastructure and system constraints
- Align electrification with regional economic structures
- Identify practical barriers to implementation
- Unlock investable, place-based opportunities
- Translate national ambition into real-world delivery
Grounding electrification in local realities is essential to making it possible at scale.

What the Big Switch delivers

The Big Switch addresses the coordination and delivery challenges holding back electrification by enabling structured, bottom-up action across states and regions.

By aligning policy, infrastructure, and investment, the initiative helps translate ambition into implementation and unlock electrification at scale.

Coordinate systems: Align electrified demand with clean power supply, grid infrastructure, and investment across sectors, reducing fragmentation and enabling system-wide delivery
Enable delivery: Support practical, implementation-focused action to overcome policy, infrastructure, and financing barriers, accelerating project development and deployment
Connect actors: Bring together governments, businesses, investors, and stakeholders across the electrification value chain through targeted dialogues and workshops to reduce risk, improve coordination, and unlock investment.
Co-develop action: Shape implementation-ready, fit-for-purpose policy actions grounded in regional conditions, ensuring solutions are deployable in practice

Four Pathways to Scale Electrification

Electrification requires coordinated action across sectors. The Big Switch is structured around four pathways that define where and how states and regions can accelerate progress.

Electrifying mobility systems:

Scaling electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, public transport, freight solutions, and integrated mobility systems

Decarbonising industrial production:

Advancing industrial electrification, enabling low-carbon manufacturing, and aligning industrial demand with clean electricity

Electrifying buildings and construction:

Deploying heat pumps, rooftop solar, smart energy systems, and electrified building solutions

Building a resilient clean power backbone

Expanding and modernising grids, integrating renewable electricity, and enabling flexibility, storage, and supporting infrastructure

Association of Regiona of Morocco (ARM)

Buenos Aires

Colorado

Cross River State

Gauteng Government

Quebec

Taita Taveta

Western Cape

Your answer here.

For more information please contact

Damilola Adeyanju dadeyanju@climategroup.org

The Big Switch

Subnational pathways to scale clean electrification

About the Big Switch

Why Electrification, Why Now?

Our work

Our delivery

Our partners

Four Pathways to Scale Electrification

Working Group Government members

For more information please contact