| Every year another 500,000 people migrate from the countryside to sprawling South American cities like São Paulo. Many end up in favelas that either have no power or rely on illegal, often dangerous, electricity hook-ups. Enel, a global energy company headquartered in Rome that generates and distributes electricity in 30 countries on five continents, is tackling the energy poverty problem by using a strategy which focuses on community involvement, renewable energy, and a circular economy approach. In São Paulo, for example, thanks to a partnership between the energy company and an NGO, Enel improved community life in slums with high crime rates by adding public streetlights. The streetlights were constructed by locals from green material: an electric circuit made using recycled parts, an LED, a recycled plastic bottle as a bulb, a solar panel for power generation and a rechargeable lithium battery to guarantee night-time lighting. To the cynical this may sound like corporate social responsibility publicity stunts and greenwashing, but the numbers tell a different story. Through this approach Enel has managed to shrink direct emissions by more than half over the last ten years while growing revenue. Renewables now make up 47.9%, up from just 8% a decade ago. Enel expects its total portfolio to be more than 85% renewable by 2030 and at net-zero, for both direct and indirect emissions, by 2040. That’s 10 years earlier than the goal Enel set for itself in 2015, when it signed on to the United Nations’ SDGs. Enel's progress is an example of how the energy transition offers enormous opportunities to not only shape the future of the global energy system but also to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges through concrete actions. | 
