TRACKING SDG7

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Context: According to a new UN assessment, factors such as excessive inflation, an unclear macroeconomic outlook, and debt hardship are hindering the world from meeting the United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goal 7 by 2030. SDG 7 aims to "ensure equitable access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all."

Details

• The Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report was published on June 6, 2023. This report provides a comprehensive overview of the progress made towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7), which aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. The report also highlights the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in the pursuit of this goal.
• The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, often known as the 2030 Agenda, was announced in 2015 by a UN Summit to eradicate poverty in all of its forms. There are 17 SDGs, which constitute an urgent call for all countries in a global partnership to take action. The year 2023 marks the halfway point towards completing the SDGs by 2030.
• SDG 7 calls for universal access to electricity and clean cooking, tripling previous efficiency gains, and significantly boosting the percentage of renewables in the global energy mix.

Report Released by:

• The report is a joint effort of five international organizations:
  • The International Energy Agency (IEA)
  • The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
  • The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD)
  • The World Bank
  • The World Health Organisation (WHO)
• These organizations have collaborated to collect and analyze the most recent and reliable data on various aspects of energy, such as access, efficiency, renewables, and emissions.

Highlights of the report

• The report reveals that despite some progress in recent years, the world is still far from achieving SDG7.
• According to the report, about 759 million people lacked access to electricity in 2020, down from 860 million in 2018. However, this improvement was largely due to the expansion of grid connections in urban areas, while rural areas remained underserved. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted electrification efforts and threatened to reverse the gains made so far.
• Several key economic problems, such as an uncertain macroeconomic outlook, high levels of inflation, currency volatility, financial distress in many countries, a shortage of finance, supply chain bottlenecks, tighter budgetary circumstances, and skyrocketing prices, are hampering global SDG 7 implementation.
• According to the study, certain policy approaches to the global energy crisis appear likely to improve the outlook for renewables and energy efficiency. Other important policy acts, however, as well as money flows, continue to lag. This is especially concerning the absence of universal access to power and clean cooking in underdeveloped nations, with forecasts indicating that SDG 7 will not be met by 2030, according to the study.

Finance

• The report reveals that progress on target 7. a — enhancing international public financial flows to support renewable energy in developing countries — started to decline even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2020, financial resources have been more than a third lower than the average of the previous decade (2010-19).
• The UN agencies warn that as financial flows have decreased for the third consecutive year, they have also become more concentrated in a few countries.
• The downward trend in international public financial flows could jeopardize the achievement of SDG 7, especially for least-developed countries (LDCs), landlocked developing countries, and small island developing states.

Access to electricity

• According to the report, global access to electricity rose by 0.7% points per year from 2010 to 2021, reaching 84% to 91% of the world's population. During this period, the number of people without electricity nearly halved, from 1.1 billion in 2010 to 675 million in 2021.
• The annual growth rate slowed down to 0.6% points in 2019-21.

Access to clean cooking

• The global population without access to clean cooking dropped from 2.9 billion in 2010 to 2.3 billion in 2021, achieving universal access by 2030 remains challenging.
• The report estimates that nearly 1.9 billion people will still lack access to clean cooking by 2030. If current trends continue, Sub-Saharan Africa will account for nearly six out of every ten people without access to clean cooking by 2030.
• With the ongoing impact of COVID-19 and rising energy prices, the IEA projects that 100 million people who recently switched to clean cooking may revert to using traditional biomass, according to the report.

Renewable energy

• The report states that renewable energy adoption (target 7.2) has increased since 2010, but not enough to meet the international climate and energy targets.
• In 2020, renewable energy accounted for 19.1% of total final energy consumption (or 12.5% if conventional biomass use is removed), a slight increase from 16% a decade earlier.
• It also highlights the need to improve renewable energy supply in underdeveloped countries, where access to clean and modern energy is still limited.

Energy intensity

• The report reveals that the rate of progress in energy efficiency (target 7.3) is not on track to double by 2030, as required by SDG 7.
• The global energy intensity improvement averaged only 1.8% between 2010 and 2020, falling short of the projected increase of 2.6% per year.
• To achieve the goal, the global energy intensity improvement must now reach 3.4% from 2020 to 2030—twice the rate attained in the previous decade.

The report concludes that achieving SDG 7 by 2030 is still possible, but it requires urgent and concerted action from all stakeholders, including governments, the private sector, civil society and international organizations. The report also emphasizes that achieving SDG 7 is not only a moral imperative, but also a strategic opportunity to advance sustainable development and address the global challenges of our time.

The report calls for urgent action from all stakeholders to accelerate the progress towards SDG 7 and align it with the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. It recommends:

Scaling up investments and policies

• Scaling up investments and policies for expanding access to electricity and clean cooking, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, where the needs are greatest. This requires enhancing public-private partnerships, mobilizing domestic resources, improving governance and regulation, and promoting decentralized solutions and innovation.

Increasing the share of renewable energy

• Increasing the share of renewable energy in all sectors, especially heating, cooling and transport, where the potential is huge but untapped. This requires removing fossil fuel subsidies, introducing carbon pricing, strengthening grid infrastructure and integration, and fostering cross-sectoral synergies and cooperation.

Improving energy efficiency

• Improving energy efficiency across all sectors and end-users, especially in industry, buildings and appliances, where the opportunities are abundant but underexploited. This requires setting and enforcing ambitious standards and regulations, providing incentives and financing, raising awareness and capacity, and facilitating technology transfer and innovation.

Mobilizing international public financial flows

• Mobilizing international public financial flows for clean energy in developing countries, especially the LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS, where the gaps are largest. This requires increasing the volume and quality of official development assistance (ODA), leveraging private sector investments, enhancing access to climate finance, and aligning financial flows with the SDG 7 targets and the Paris Agreement.
• Mobilizing more and better financial resources for expanding energy access, especially for clean cooking, and leveraging the private sector and innovative financing mechanisms.

Others

• Strengthening the political commitment and leadership for achieving universal energy access, and integrating it with other development goals and priorities.
• Enhancing the policy and regulatory frameworks for enabling a conducive environment for renewable energy and energy efficiency deployment, and addressing the barriers and risks that hinder their uptake.
• Promoting regional and international cooperation and knowledge sharing for facilitating the transfer of best practices, technologies and solutions for clean energy development.
• Strengthening the data collection and monitoring systems for tracking the progress and performance of SDG 7 indicators, and improving the transparency and accountability of energy policies and actions.

Conclusion

• The report warns that current efforts are not enough to achieve SDG 7 on time and calls for stronger and more tangible commitments to close the gaps in access to electricity and clean cooking fuels and technologies; a fundamental transformation of the global energy system as a precondition for sustainable development and global energy security; and the importance of international cooperation and financing to deliver on the considerable promise of the energy transition.

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Sustainable Development Goals: https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/sustainable-development-goals

PRACTICE QUESTION Q. How can we achieve the sustainable development goal of ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all? What are some of the possible solutions and actions that can be taken by governments, businesses and individuals to overcome these obstacles and accelerate the progress towards this goal?

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/governance/sdg-7-world-still-off-track-from-achieving-universal-energy-access-to-all-says-un-report-89856