The report examines how electricity systems have evolved globally since 1989. It uses a new dataset to pinpoint the main obstacles to improving access and sustainability and charts a path for overcoming them. The analysis shows that the overall trend, including in emerging markets, is that of countries transitioning from state-owned monopolies to more market-friendly systems that allow various levels of competition and private sector participation. Liberalization is generally associated with better outcomes on the two metrics studied— access and sustainability.