Sustainable Development Goal 7

When you wake up hungry in the morning, what do you do? It's likely you fire up your stove or turn on your toaster and coffee machine and make yourself breakfast. This is normal to you and presumably doesn't involve having to collect any kind of solid fuel to make it happen. You also probably don't have to worry about excess smoke inhalation, unless you've burnt your bacon. But seriously, there are billions of people who don't have these luxuries. They don't have ready access to non-solid fuel or in many cases, any type of fuel. Additionally, they may often inhale way too much smoke while preparing meals or heating their homes. Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) is specifically supposed to combat this lack of access to proper energy sources. Continue to read to discover more about it.

Goal 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

Sustainable Development Goal 7 aims to

The goal is necessary because a significant proportion of the earth's population does not have access to proper energy sources, much less to sustainable energy sources.

Globally, the lack of access to proper energy sources has hindered development, and, more specifically, sustainable development for many. As a result, the achievement of SDG 7 will create opportunities for billions of people. Continued, uncontrollable use of non-renewable energy resources increases pollution and contributes to global warming and, by extension, climate change. Having access to reliable and sustainable energy will therefore contribute to poverty alleviation, control climate change and promote a more sustainable world as envisioned by the Sustainable Development Goals. Consequently, without the success of SDG 7, it will be challenging to achieve the 2030 Agenda along with the Paris Agreement on climate change.

It has been posited that, in theory, the achievement of SDG 7 should be possible because global energy transformation is already underway. In Brazil, 46% of the total energy comes from renewable sources and if we look specifically at electricity for that country, 83% is generated from renewable energy. On a more global level, hydroelectric power provides 16% of the world's electricity and bioenergy, which is the largest renewable energy source, provides 10% of the world's energy supply.

Fig. 1 - Itaipu Dam, Brazil-Paraguay border- 2nd largest hydroelectric dam in the world

However, the theory does not always pan out for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to:

1. Energy efficiency is often overlooked and remains underdeveloped
2. It is difficult to change mindsets toward more renewable energy
3. It is challenging to reach people in very remote parts of the world to give them access to energy
4. The transition from coal is challenging for economies that still utilize it as a significant source of energy.

In further sections, we shall examine the actual progress toward the achievement of SDG 7.

SDG 7 Targets and Indicators

SDG 7 has five targets and six indicators for its achievement by 2030. The targets and indicators are presented below.

Table 1^4,5

Progress in Energy Efficiency

On average, improvements toward energy efficiency remain below the targets set by the SDGs. Between 2010 and 2019, the global average rate of improvement in energy intensity (the measurement of energy efficiency) was 1.9 percent. This rate, which, although greater than the 1990-2010 average increase of 1.2 percent, was well below the 2.6 percent target annual improvement rate which is required to achieve SDG 7.3. Therefore, an average annual energy intensity improvement rate of 3.2 percent would be needed from 2020 onwards to meet the target. Unfortunately, initial estimates have shown that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly decreased the 2020 rate and the 2021 rate shows a return to the 2010-2019 average. Consequently, it is doubtful whether this aspect of SDG 7 can be achieved by 2030.

Regional Variations in the Progress in Energy Efficiency

When disaggregated by region, there are marked differences. Eastern Asia and Southeast Asia are the only two regions to surpass the target of 2.6 percent. Between 2010-2019, both recorded annual average improvements in their energy efficiency of 2.7 percent. While being lower than the target average annual rate of improvement, Oceania (2.2 percent), North America, Europe, Central Asia, and Southern Asia (2.0 percent each) were all above the global average of 1.9 percent. Latin America and the Caribbean had by far the lowest annual average rate of increase in energy efficiency with 0.6 percent. Other regions with low rates include Western Asia, Northern Africa (1.2 percent each), and Sub-Saharan Africa (1.3 percent). These regional differences mimic variations in economic structure, energy supply, and access to energy.

It should also be noted that Latin America and the Caribbean is the least energy-intensive region in the world. This means that it takes the least amount of energy to produce one unit of economic output in this region which would explain why its rate of improvement in energy efficiency is also the lowest globally.

Fig. 2 - Global energy efficiency represented as energy intensity, 2019