March 29, 2024
  • Factors like high inflation, uncertain macroeconomic outlook and debt distress are keeping the world off-track for attaining United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goal 7 by 2030, according to a new UN report. SDG 7 is to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.”
  • The Report is produced annually by five of the custodian agencies responsible for tracking global progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7). The custodians developing the report are the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO).

ECONOMIC FACTORS

  • Even though there has been considerable improvement across the measures, the present rate is insufficient to meet any of the 2030 targets.
  • Among the major economic factors delaying the realization of SDG7 globally are
    • The uncertain macroeconomic outlook,
    • High levels of inflation,
    • Currency fluctuations,
    • Debt distress in a growing number of countries,
    • Lack of financing,
    • Supply chain bottlenecks,
    • Tighter fiscal circumstances, and
    • Soaring prices for materials.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS OF REPORT

  • The official dashboard of global, regional, and country progress on four important energy targets is included in the yearly SDG 7 tracking report:
    • 1: Ensuring universal access to electricity and clean cooking solutions,
    • 2: Substantially increasing the share of renewable energy,
    • 3: Doubling progress on energy efficiency,
    • A: Increasing international collaboration in support of clean and renewable energy.

ACCESS TO ELECTRICITY (7.1):

  • The proportion of individuals who have access to electricity increased from 83% in 2010 to 91% in 2020, adding 3 billion more people to the worldwide total.
  • 733 million fewer people lacked access in 2020 compared to 2 billion in 2010.
  • The difficulty of reaching poorer and more rural unserved areas, as well as the unusual effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, may be to blame for the recent slowdown in electricity progress.
  • By 2030, only 92% of the world will be electrified at the current rate of development.
  • Meeting the 2030 target requires increasing the number of new connections to 100 million a year.

CLEAN COOKING (7.1):

  • In 2020, 69% of the world’s population had access to clean cooking fuels and technologies, a gain of 3% from 2021.
  • However, notably in sub-Saharan Africa, population growth outpaced a large portion of access improvements.
  • Because of this, the overall number of individuals without access to clean cooking has stayed mostly unchanged for decades. Access improvements to populous, major Asian countries were the main cause of the surge.

RENEWABLES (7.2):

  • Although the share of renewable capacity expansion surged to a record level in 2021, the favourable global and regional trajectories conceal the fact that the nations with the greatest access needs were those where new capacity additions lagged.
  • Additionally, the cost of manufacturing and exporting solar photovoltaic (PV) modules, wind turbines, and biofuels has grown due to rising commodity, energy, and transportation prices as well as trade restrictions, which has added uncertainty for upcoming renewable energy projects.
  • Renewable shares need to reach well over 30% of ‘total final energy consumption’ by 2030, up from 18% in 2019, to be on track for reaching net-zero energy emissions by 2050.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY (7.3):

  • It aims to double the global rate of annual improvement in primary energy intensity—the amount of energy used per unit of wealth created—to 2.6% in 2010–30 versus 1990–2010.
  • From 2010 to 2019, global annual improvements in energy intensity averaged around 9%, well below the target.
  • The rate of energy efficiency needs to be higher—consistently over 4% for the rest of this decade—if the world is to reach net-zero emissions from the energy sector by

INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL FLOWS (7.A):

  • International public financial flows to developing countries in support of clean energy decreased for the second year in a row, falling to USD 10.9 billion in 2019, despite the immense needs for sustainable development in most countries and growing urgency of climate change.
  • Overall, the level of financing remains below what is needed to reach SDG 7, particularly in the most vulnerable and least developed countries.
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