SDG 7: Clean and Green Energy

By
BM-A, Group 10
PGDM (BM) 2019-21,
XLRI, Jamshedpur

Co-authors:

Arpit                   B19009

Vishal Medida     B19027

Ritika Deshwal   B19038

Utsav Shah        B19045

Tosha Trivedi     B19056

The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 highlights ‘low priced and clean electricity's’ essential position in the development and gives special focus on energy availability, affordability, and efficiency. Short term goal of electricity protection would imply to set a conscientious reaction to energy demand, deliver imbalances and long term protection by involving investments in the electricity region in alignment with sustainable monetary increase.

Why should I worry about clean and green energy when I am already getting sufficient energy and I am not bothered to know the source? So the answer is to think about the “Greater Good”. It is not about what one is having now, it’s about what we will have in future and also what we have right now, are others also having the same?

In today’s world, almost 16% of the population i.e. 1.2 Bn people have almost no or very little electricity and, the majority of these people live in rural areas of the developing world.  More than 40% of the world’s population i.e. 3 Billion people do their cooking by unhealthy fuels. 60% of greenhouse gases are produced because of energy production and this leads to climate change. There is excessive dependence on fossil fuels which are depleting. The use of nuclear fuels to generate energy creates toxic waste and is very harmful to the environment as well as living things. The energy production and availability also affect the cost of commodities indirectly and this affects the common man. These are the issues faced in today’s world which can be addressed if efforts are made in the direction for generating clean and green energy and making it available to every part of the world. Few steps are taken in this direction by the United Nations and these had led to an improvement in this sector. Since 2015, almost 20% of the total energy produced is renewable energy. The renewable energy sector is creating jobs and thus is beneficial for the economy. Ban Ki-moon, 8th General Secretary of UN have rightly quoted

 “Energy is the golden thread that connects economic growth, social equity, and environmental sustainability. With access to energy, people can study, go to university, get a job, start a business – and reach their full potential.”

The UN Sustainable Development Solution Network SDG Report 2018 scores India at 54 in terms of the achievement of SDG 7. In India, almost 85% of the population has access to electricity. According to the government, under the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana, in just 2 years,100% of India is electrified. The government’s National Solar Mission is playing an important role in the development of renewable energy, and interventions in rural electrification and new ultra-mega power projects are transferring India towards accomplishing universal energy access. The National Solar Mission was inaugurated by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 11 January 2010 with a goal of 20GW by 2022 which later got extended to 100GW by the current government in the 2015 fiscal budget of India. India elevated its solar power generation potential with the aid of almost 5 times from 2,650 MW on 26 May 2014 to 12,288.83 MW on 31 March 2017. The Skill India campaign aims at training 500 Mn youth of India including those in villages by 2020, a part of this training also focuses on renewable energy. There are various programs going in India like Smart Power India funded by the Rockefeller foundation which aims at empowering rural India with renewable energy. A new report from India’s DRE (Decentralized Renewable Energy) enterprise body Clean Energy Access Network (CLEAN), based on facts for the Fiscal Year 2016–17, confirmed that India’s DRE area deployed 3.6 million sun lanterns, 92,000 solar domestic structures, and 206 mini-grids at some point of the duration. It will be growing more rapidly with greater supportive policy and more funding provided by the government as well as some private companies.

Not just on the national front but India is working on International fronts as well towards the goal of reducing dependence on fossil fuels. And, one such initiative is the ISA, International Solar Alliance which was initiated by India and France and has been joined by a total of 121 countries. These countries are the sunshine countries, which lie on the or between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. The primary objective of the alliance is to work towards using solar energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Initiatives like these by the government in power acts as a moral suasion for a lot of multinational corporations, and consequently, they end up promoting the policies and initiatives taken up by the governments. But forcibly or not this is actually a very good step, as these corporations bring the changes on an international level as compared to individuals working in the same direction. 

One of us is going to Microsoft for a summer internship and these days tech companies have a lot of pressure to reduce their carbon footprints because of their vast energy consumption due to their data centers. Hence, Microsoft is also working down that line and it announced a new wind agreement in the Netherlands where Eneco, a Dutch sustainable energy company will provide green power to data centers of Microsoft till 15 years starting from 2022.“Our buying of renewable power helps enhance the sustainability of our operations and neighborhood grids,” said Brian Janous, supervisor of energy and sustainability at Microsoft. “This settlement is our 14th renewable energy Power Purchase Agreement and brings our clean power portfolio to more than 1.5 GW. The electricity generated will help in continuing long-term growth of Microsoft cloud services delivered from the Netherlands, which is one in all 54 Azure areas introduced and part of certainly one of the most important and maximum progressive cloud infrastructures inside the global.” 

The shift to renewable energies helps the companies get a PR boost as one can show the clients, customer and the community that you care about their well being. In the interview, Brian Janous said that shifting to renewable energy and working with local communities for clean energy generation is helping to generate more green power easily and at a cheaper rate. Microsoft uses a reinsurance (transfer of risk) market strategy to fund renewable energy projects because they are considered a bit risky. According to research conducted by BCG and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development(WBCSD), green investments are more financially attractive and they deliver above-average returns. Investment in green energies are also supported by government grants and subsidies. One of us will be working for RBS and it recently announced that it is going to shift to 100% renewable energy till 2025 and demonstrated its commitment by joining RE100. Separately, in March RBS introduced it changed into committing to offer £10bn of funding to sustainable power between 2018 and 2020. Whilst on the bank’s AGM in May, RBS introduced that they would now not fund certain power initiatives which include new coal-fired power stations or oil sands tasks and will not provide finance to mining companies producing more than 40% in their sales from thermal coal or electricity businesses producing more than 40% of their energy from coal.

But all is not rosy here as well. Like everything else, clean energy too comes with its own trade-offs and issues. One such example is the widely known dilemma of the corn crop. Corn is one such thing which is used as a food and is also required as an element in ethanol, which is a clean fuel as compared to gasoline, etc. the question this throws up how do we distribute the resources and what or who gets a larger share. This is a classic example of the use of economic theory, which says that resources are scarce and have multiple uses. And, this eventually leads to the problem of pricing, the rising demand and use of corn is driving the prices higher and higher making it difficult for people to remain consuming the quantities that they did. so, ultimately it boils down to one question, “if there is not enough corn to go around, where should it go – food, feed or fuel?”.

“Every energy agency nowadays, whether or not predominantly solar, wind, or oil, will subsequently emerge as a renewable power corporation,” affirms Tim Nixon, director for Sustainability at Thomson Reuters. He says that they are not yet dependent on it, but they cannot avoid it in the near future. “This is due to the fact expenses for power sources which might be totally carbon-based will boom and it will be a costly affair, as environmental damage and regulations are highly-priced.”Meanwhile, the complete opposite is going on for renewable energy. “At the same time, costs for power assets which are renewable will steadily decrease, until the commercial enterprise clean.”Nixon believes that the future of renewable energy is wind, sun, new nuclear and possibly geothermal electricity, as well as different inexperienced sources that haven't begun to evolve. “The question is around timing, with a view to be predominantly driven via a fee/advantage evaluation incorporating coverage, investor and reputational considerations.” One individual who thinks the future of renewable strength has already arrived is Kevin Steinberger, a Climate and Clean Energy Program coverage analyst on the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Wind and solar have become the cheapest assets of new energy in lots of markets across the united states,” Steinberger says. “We need to double down on our investments in wind and sun and boost up boom in both technologies to reap our long-time environment desires.”Steinberger also believes it’s crucial to support the rising offshore wind industry. “We need to take advantage of the full-size untapped ability just off our coasts.” U.S. President Barack Obama calls “clean technology", the green energy sector -- as a catalyst for generating employment and long term financial growth and stability. 

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has additionally said that sustainable energy will lead to global economic growth in the long term. Even if investors do not care about the environment and buy the hype, they sure can not ignore headlines. Oil prices are skyrocketing, because of Middle East unrest, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the close to the meltdown of several Japanese nuclear reactors have further soured investors on the protection and viability of traditional electricity manufacturing. Whether companies do it by themselves or are made to do by regulation and high prices, sooner or later, according to experts they have to shift to renewable and clean energy. The global economic disaster that took hold in 2008 changed into a warning call for business and government leaders globally. It's not sensible to pursue an enterprise model that promotes growth at any cost. Unsustainable growth, in the end, became the main reason for the U.S. Real estate bubble that triggered the fall. Unfettered expansion, scientists additionally warn, best will increase our appetite for oil and different fossil fuels that make a contribution to international climate exchange. In the submit-disaster financial system, enterprise and authorities leaders around the arena have rallied around a new flag: sustainability. Hence, organizations no matter how large and countries no matter whether developed or not, have to shift to clean energy and this will not only save the environment but will also be economically viable.

References:

1. https://news.microsoft.com/europe/2019/05/24/microsoft-and-eneco-team-up-to-drive-sustainable-business-transformations-powering-the-cloud-with-clean-energy
2. http://www.smartpowerindia.org/
3. https://blogs.microsoft.com/green/2017/03/16/microsoft-recognized-for-innovative-wind-energy-deal-in-wyoming-a-qa-with-brian-janous/
4. https://www.rbs.com/rbs/news/2018/09/rbs-commits-to-using-100-per-cent-renewable-energy-for-all-elect.html
5. https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/9-ways-businesses-can-benefit-renewable-energy.php
6. https://www.rbs.com/rbs/sustainability/responsible-business/approach-to-climate-change/sustainable-energy.html
7. https://www.bcg.com/en-in/publications/2018/bridging-gap-role-green-projects-scaling-climate.aspx
8. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/corn-shortage-forces-trade-off-between-food-and-ethanol/article4488600/
9. https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/green-energy-business-growth.htm
10. https://www.chooseenergy.com/news/article/what-is-the-future-of-renewable-energy/
11. https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/top-15-tech-companies-using-green-energy.php