Switching to greener sources of energy - fast - is crucial to limit the planet's heating and keep people safe. But is the coronavirus pandemic making that shift easier or harder?

In rural areas of developing countries, COVID-19 has shown the importance of a stable supply of electricity for health centres. That could drive efforts to get more solar minigrids and solar-plus-storage systems in place, to power everything from ventilators to refrigeration for an eventual virus vaccine.

In Africa, oil-producing countries are faced with a dilemma due to a coronavirus-related plunge in the fossil fuel's price: Should they pump faster, before their reserves become a "stranded asset", or use the crisis to slingshot toward renewables? 

Adopting clean energy could provide legions of new jobs and a chance to cut oil corruption - but money to do it is scarce. "The road to going green is fraught with many difficulties," admits Fatima Denton, director of the U.N. University's Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.

In Bangladesh, a solar-power-sharing start-up won a major prize this week for its system that lets owners of small home solar systems - the country has more than 5 million - sell to neighbours excess power they produce, which once went to waste.

Bimal Krishna Das, 40, who runs a pharmacy in Barisal hit by the coronavirus downturn, said the scheme had been a huge help through the pandemic. "It's such a relief to have some extra money in your pocket during this crisis," he told correspondent Naimul Karim.

Not all renewable energy projects are the "good guys", though. In the race to get clean power in place, some big solar and wind companies aren't doing enough to protect the rights of their workers and the communities where they operate, says a new report, and that could hamper the much-needed energy transition.

"We need clean energy that respects human rights," notes former Irish President Mary Robinson, and a transition "that is fast, but fair".

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