Energy to All : A Blog on SDG7 its Importance and Relevance in Today's Context
The UN SDG-7, “Affordable and Clean Energy”, aims at
universal access to energy through increased efficiency in energy production
and consumption, along with expanded utilization of renewable sources of energy
by 2030. A consequence of this would be better economic opportunities and more
jobs, empowerment of youth and women, improved quality of education and health
and more inclusive, sustainable and equitable communities.
Despite such lofty goals, there is a long road ahead, with
more than a billion people lacking access to energy and around 781 million with
lack of access to clean fuels [1] and cooking technologies.
This goal has four major targets with, and reforms are
targeted at achieving certain standards on them till 2030.
Universal Access to Electricity
Aims at universal availability of electricity. It is
measured as the proportion of people who have access to electricity at the
house level. It includes the power that is sold commercially, both at the
on-grid and off-grid scale.
The global rate of electrification has reached 89% (from 79%
in 2000), and an average of 130 million people have been gaining access to
electricity every year since 2010.
Yet estimates project that by 2030, 650 million people would still be living
without access to electricity without stepped-up and sustained efforts. In
2017, 78% of the global population that lived without electricity supply,
resided in the top 20 access deficient counties. The period between 2015-17 saw
the rate of electrification surpass population growth, but the 570 million
deficit in Africa still needs to be bridged before the eventual goal of the SDG
is met. [2] In this regard, the world
population is currently gaining access to electricity at an average rate of
0.6%.
Clean Cooking
This targets at successfully providing clean energy
technology and assistance in research on cleaner sources of energy through
international cooperation. This includes expansion of better infrastructure and
technology to developing countries.
The usage of clean energy has increased from 57% in 2010 to
61% in 2017.The pace of progress needs to be accelerated 6-fold to ensure the
timely achievement of the target. Three billion people still use wood and
charcoal for cooking. The subsequent indoor pollution leads to almost 4 million
deaths every year. There is a huge disparity in terms of clean energy usage,
with urban areas having 83% of the population using it compared to 34% in the
rural areas. [3]The
progress in access to clean energy has been the slowest among all targets, with
meager progress in Asia from 2010-17 being the only success.
Renewable Energy
Increase in the share of renewable energy as a function of
its share in the total global energy consumption. This figure was 17.5% in 2016
after the largest annual increase since 2012. Roughly 10.2% of this comprised of modern renewable
energy (e.g. wind, solar, hydropower) and the rest was traditional biomass. [4]
Expansion in modern renewable has led to a 200% increase in the
use of renewable energy since 2010, with the fastest increase in electricity
generation. In 2016, 25% of it was sourced from renewables such as wind and
solar PV. The use of renewables for heat and transport is still lagging with
low usage of 9% and 3.3% respectively. Since these incorporate 80% of all energy
requirements, progress on this front is the current priority.[5]
Energy Efficiency
Measured in terms of primary energy and GDP, the target aims
at improving the current rate two-fold by 2030. Primary Energy Intensity has
been falling at a rate of 2.3%/yr since 2010, behind the current rate of
improvement of 2.7%. Further, a reduction in rate in 2017-18 has led to greater
woes. [5]
Asia has been a front runner in PEI improvement with rates of
3.4% in the East and South-East. Among various sectors using energy, the rate
of improvement has been highest for Industry at 2.7%/yr. The introduction of
passenger cars has helped drive efficiency to higher levels than ever before.[5]
India is going to be
one of the major contributors to the rise in energy demand, with 1/4th
of the rise being attributed to it. Inspite of this more than 207 million people
in India (31 million households) lack access to electricity despite 100%
electrification of Indian villages through an intricate grid network.
India has an
installed capacity of 83 gigawatts, with capacity for solar power increasing by
a factor of 12 over the past 5 years. This tremendous growth provided a basis
for the government’s goal of building 175 GW of clean energy by March 2022.
However, certain obstacles in bankrolling such initiatives makes the target
seem difficult to achieve. Distribution companies have faulted in paying their
dues to renewable energy providers. For example, Acme Solar holdings is owed
Rs. 210 Crore from the Andhra state distribution companies and Rs. 386 from
Telengana.
The CEO of Sprng
energy, a player in wind and solar power, quotes that the current investment
environment in the renewable energy sector seems quite concerning. The likely
capacity for solar energy in March 2022 is around 59 GW, just 59% of what the
government has targeted. Additional factors which make the future seem less
than ideal for the Indian renewable energy sector are policy changes and lack
of compensation for solar power developers under GST. The apprehensions were
further echoed by CRISIL. Unfortunately, the government’s reaction has been to
trash such reports. While optimism is necessary for achieving ambitious goals,
actually paying heed to third-parties could help the government course correct
while there is still time. [13]
While there are many concerns there are some steps in the right direction too, India recently
entered the Sino-Indian partnership with China to cooperate and work on better
technologies and therefore help improve their SDG scores, which have remained
stagnant at 54 and 69.1 for a few years now. [7]
Business
Implication and Responses
Several firms
are adding value by sharing the goal and working towards meeting the targets To
perform business there are certain requirements, including the regulatory
framework, the macroeconomic environment, etc. Below is a heat map of Energy
Access vs Business Environment.
Source: seforall.org
A key
takeaway from the above graph is that of the world’s 20 countries with the
largest number of people without electricity, only five - Bangladesh, India,
Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda - provide comprehensive policy support for energy
access according to the Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy. This
implies that in the coming years, businesses in these countries can make a deep
impact regarding SDG 7.
Another
initiative, regarding this SDG is World Future Energy Summit (WFES), it is the
world's foremost global annual event dedicated to advancing future energy,
energy efficiency and clean technology. WFES brings together thousands of
decision-makers, policy-makers, investors, experts and media from 175 countries
to source cutting-edge technologies, network with solution providers and do
business.
·
Novozymes:
It has supported the UN Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative's Sustainable
Bioenergy High-Impact Opportunity (HIO). Mainly, it focuses on cellulosic
ethanol for clean cooking and transportation, sustainable aviation biofuels and
on-farm bioenergy production. It has linked private players with national
governments and civil communities, in order to foster sustainable rural
economic development and reduce the use of fossil fuels.[8]
·
Solar
Now: Launched in 2011, it meets the demand for affordable high quality solar
home systems in Uganda. It has reached 20,000 people through the sale of over
2,700 systems.
·
To
reach the millions of rural customers with limited financial resources,
substantial price reductions will be needed. In order to reduce the price,
SolarNow is continually streamlining its importation import process, which lowers
costs. [9]
·
MARS:
It has fixed their long term climate change ambitions, to reduce total GHG
emissions from their full value chain by 27% by 2025 and by 67%
by 2050, from 2015 levels. Their efforts range from on-site renewable
generation like adding solar panels and establishing annual contracts, to
signing long-term, country-level contracts that create renewable infrastructure
in places like the United States and the United Kingdom. [10]
·
CITI:
Citi has created a $100
Billion Environmental Finance Initiative to lend, invest and facilitate $100
billion over ten years to activities focused on environmental solutions and
reducing the impacts of climate change globally. Activities supporting
renewable and efficient energy generation is a major contributor to that goal.
They also invest in client efforts to develop projects, technologies, and
services that reduce greenhouse gas and other emissions. [11]
·
Chevron:
It is one of the world’s major producer of geothermal energy, which has almost
no greenhouse gas emissions. In
Indonesia and the Philippines, it supplies enough geothermal energy to meet the
needs of millions of people. Chevron uses its experience in reservoir
characterization and safe, efficient drilling to produce this renewable
resource. [9]
·
Walmart:
Walmart aims to reduce its energy consumption by 20% per square ft by 2020
compared with the 2010 baseline and is working its way being powered 100% by
renewable energy(currently at 26%)
and improve the fuel efficiency of its fleet. [9]
·
IBM:
“Green Horizon”, a 10-year initiative to support China in transforming its
national energy systems and protecting the health of citizens. The project
focuses on three areas critical to China’s sustainable growth: air quality
management, renewable energy forecasting and energy optimization for industry.
In air quality management, scientists from IBM are collaborating with the
Bejing government to apply super computing processing power to create visual
maps identifying the source and dispersion of pollutants across Beijing, with
street-scale resolution. [9]
WHAT
ROLE CAN ORGANISATIONS PLAY
• Identify & adopt new
technologies that transition from traditional sources of energy to renewable
ones. This transition can be taken up via in-house R&D or investment in new
ventures that decrease the cost of employing renewable resources at scale
• The ultimate goals of the
organizations investing in these renewable sources is to shift to renewable
sources 100%. This will breed long-term sustainability of not just the planet,
but also these organizations who will become future proof by adopting the
energy of the future
• Along with providing low-cost
alternative options, companies should take up the role of educating customers
about saving energy. This will not just breed an energy-conscious consumer, but
also a resource-conscious one. Again, this has a direct benefit on the
organization – by influencing conscious behavior, they reduce wear & tear
effectively reducing the cost to produce a product having the same life cycle
length. Not only would it reduce robustness cost, cost of operations due to
lower electricity costs will help organizations benefit as well
• Engage in lobbying activities with
the government that promote the use of clean energy sources at subsidized rates
until it becomes a norm. First-movers advantage will apply here too. Eventually
the world will move to clean energy, as a business would you rather arrive
early and enjoy the freebies or later when the perks are over?
• Reduce emissions from processes.
Adoption of the latest carbon capture and storage technologies, eliminating
flare and reducing fugitive emissions are low-cost high-impact options
available today thanks to the onset of constantly developing technology
• Perform experiments and tinker
around to find the ideal energy-efficient solution. For example, most people
won’t even notice if the office thermostat temperature was increased by a
single degree. However, this one-degree increment would actually lead to
significant cost and energy savings when implemented at scale. Such tiny
experiments can be conducted in order to identify efficient usage of resources
at every level across the organization
The RE 100
Initiative
Bringing
together influential businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity, RE 100
is a global corporate leadership initiative. The initiative aims to increase
corporate demand for – and hence in turn supply of – renewable resources.
Companies
joining this initiative set a public goal to source 100% of their global
electricity consumption from renewable resources by a specifies year. In order
to join RE 100, a company has to be a major multi-national influential
one(Fortune 1000 or equivalent). Once they’re a part of RE 100, the consumption
& production of renewable electricity need to meet the reporting and
transparency requirements set, and be verified by an independent third-party [12]
References
[10] https://www.mars.com/sustainability-plan
[12] http://there100.org/re100
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