Group8_B | SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
Group 8_B
SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
Submitted by: Aayush Singh- BJ20062 | Aishwarya Yadav- BJ20064 | Arpan Som- BJ20072 | Kushang Gupta- BJ20086 | Parth Kumar Saria- BJ20094 | Prateek Richard Toppo- BJ20096
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, in the Paris Climate deal 2015, stated:
"Today the world is united in the fight against climate change. Today the world gets a lifeline, a last chance to hand over to future generations a world that is more stable, a healthier planet, fairer societies, and more prosperous economies. This robust agreement will steer the world towards a global clean energy transition."
His statement certainly imbibes a sense of positivity in us. To realize this vision, the doctrine of sustainable development becomes all the way more relevant in today's times.
Sustainable development has been commonly defined as the "Development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs." This definition has been derived from the Brundtland Report "Our Common Future," which was published in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development. SDG 7 is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. It aims to "Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all." This would essentially aim to provide access to affordable and reliable energy while increasing the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. The goal can only be realized when the required infrastructure support is provided to even the least developed countries and far-off island nations.
Energy is central to our existence. Access to energy for all is essential. One can't imagine a world without any single source of energy. Currently, there are approximately 3 billion people who do not have any access to clean cooking solutions and are exposed to highly toxic levels of air pollution. Some progress has been made in the past decade regarding the use of renewable energy however, a lot still needs to be done. Our blog makes an attempt to discuss these issues keeping the Indian perspective in mind as well.
The Indian perspective
In India, SDG 7 has been further subdivided into three sub-goals:
- Universal access to electricity and clean cooking fuel
- Improving energy efficiency
- Increasing share of renewable energy in the country's energy mix
A huge portion of the electricity demand in India was unmet until recently, and as per the Government data, the task of connecting every Indian village to the grid was completed in 2018, and 99.99% of households have been electrified by March 31st, 2019 (Gaur, 2019).
Installed renewable power in India has increased at a CAGR of 17.33% between FY 16-20 (IBEF, 2020). India is well set to achieve its Paris Agreement target of 40% share of renewable energy in its total energy basket by 2022. India has initiated the formation of the International Solar Alliance, with a current membership of 121 countries, and with the objective of harnessing the solar power for all countries that lie within the tropics. The initiative also plans to connect the globe with a common power grid.
The Government has also enabled more than 72 million households (NITI Aayog, 2020) across the country to access LPG for cooking and has promoted LED across the country to increase energy efficiency.
India, being a country of 1.3+ billion people, has a surging youth population, and a growing demand for energy.
India’s per-capita electricity consumption stood at 805 kWh compared to the United States’ of 12,997 kWh in 2014 (World Bank, 2014), still leaving a huge potential to meet unmet energy demand by renewable sources.
Business Implications and Responses
Indian corporate businesses consume almost 50% of the country’s energy generation and that there is a scope of 25 GW of renewable energy adoption by them by the end of 2023. A webinar of Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) discussed the scenario and scope of adoption of renewable energy by India’s corporate sector. An appalling figure came up in the discussion that only 3% of corporate companies use renewable energy to satisfy their energy needs. So, there is a lot of room to adopt renewable energy sources at a large scale. Some of the corporates in India have taken significant steps in this direction, which has been discussed below:
Bajaj Auto promotes installation of solar panels at major vendor locations. In FY 2019-20, 34 of their vendors installed 9 MW (cumulative 30 MW) roof top solar projects generating green power and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Bajaj Auto achieved 9.19% reduction in power consumption and installed energy efficient Screw Compressor to reduce electrical consumption by 7.5% at their plant in Waluj.
In order to improve the utilization rate of electricity, the Group adopted a number of energies saving measures in FY2018, including:
- Implemented cleaning and maintenance programs to maintain efficient operation of office equipment such as refrigerators, air conditioners and shredders, etc.
- Replaced high-power lamps with energy-saving lamps
- Arranged specialists to conduct patrols irregularly after work to check whether the electronic devices are switched off.
In relation to the operation site, the Group is in strict compliance with the relevant laws and regulations and conducts regular inspection on the operation of the Group. The Group conducts energy recycling in the daily operation to save natural resources and promotes resources utilization efficiency. The Group’s routine operation exerts no adverse impact on its surroundings. According to the inspection results, the wastewater, exhaust gas, solid waste, noise and other environmental impacts arising from the operation process of the Group are in conformity with environmental laws and regulations. Besides, the Group values afforestation that the green landscaping site in the factory amounted to 155,314 square metres with a green ratio of approximately 24.0%.
As a healthcare company, Johnson & Johnson is committed to Set both short- and long-term science-based goals for GHG emission reductions, and work toward powering 100% of their operations with renewable energy.
- In 2019, J&J got directly associated with the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA), a body for large-scale energy buyers that works toward creating a resilient, zero-carbon energy system across the USA.
- In 2019 only, the Ireland campus of Janssen Sciences in Cork, devoted to biologics manufacturing and testing, accomplished the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) silver certification.
- J&J has further accelerated their renewable energy efforts with four new power purchase agreements in Ireland, Belgium, Mexico, and the Netherlands, adding up to more than 370,000 MWh per year.
- They also installed a windmill at their largest chemical production site in Geel, Belgium. The windmill has a huge (3.4 MW) capacity of electricity production.
- J&J has reduced its CO2 emissions by more than 1,300 tons annually at plant in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico, through optimizing a chilled water system.
Building on their strong legacy of climate action, they have announced their next generation of climate goals:
- By 2025, sourcing 100% of electricity needs from renewable sources
- By 2030, achieving carbon neutrality to reduce absolute Scope 1 & 2 emissions 60% and absolute upstream Scope 3 emissions 20% from 2016 levels
As per mentioned in J&J website:
Similarly, Sanofi is dedicated to implement an energy efficiency approach by decarbonizing its energies and by purchasing electricity from certified renewable sources. As a result, towards the end of 2019, 11% of the electricity purchased by them was 100% renewable. It got certified by Guarantees of Origin. Renewable electricity made up 17% of their total electricity consumption. Additionally, a renewable electricity purchase contract (PPA Power Purchase Agreement) has also been put in place with ENEL, a Mexico-based company ENEL to supply energy to three of the Mexican sites of Sanofi.
Sanofi’s environmental strategy for 2015-2025 is embodied in Planet Mobilization, covering the company’s entire value chain and involves all our stakeholders.
Analysis and Suggested Path Ahead
The basic energy requirement for humans in different forms is has continuously increased over the last century and continue to be so. Almost All the human development today comes on the back of utilization of energy in one form or another. But the issue that plagues us is the fact that the sources of energy that are majorly used by us today are not renewable and hence their exploitation for energy generation is not sustainable. The solution to this problem is utilization of renewable sources of energy.
*RES is Renewable Energy Sources, which include Small Hydro Project (≤ 25 MW), Biomass Power, Urban & Industrial Waste Power, Solar and Wind Energy
India has always supported the demand for increased usage of renewable energy and has been making massive inroads in its efforts. In India, the electricity demand is being increasingly satisfied from the clean energy with the aim to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. India has declared in its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the actions that it has planned in its effort towards achieving sustainable energy. In 2015, Indian government announced that of the total Installed power capacity of India 175GW will be constituted of Cumulative Renewable power by the year 2022. Working towards this step India had been able to install 90.4 GW of cumulative renewable power capacity by November 2020. In terms of installed power capacity India is ranked 4th and 5th in the world for Wind and Solar power generation, respectively. By November 2020 India had an Installed capacity of power stations as 38.5 GW wind and 36.9 GW solar. While there are a lot of positive implications of the efforts being made there is still a lot of untapped potential in India’s renewable energy reserves that can be employed to satisfy the growing energy needs of the country in a sustainable manner. Just in terms of wind and solar India can still generate over 1000GW of renewable energy. Apart from that another 20-25GW can be extracted from small hydro and Bio-energy plants. India has also set an aim to reduce its Greenhouse gas emission per unit GDP by 30%-35% of the 2005 level by 2030.
It is essential that India continue to lead its effort with an aim of achieving 100% affordable and clean energy for every citizen of the country. But until we do that, we must continue to devote our time and resources towards achieving these targets because the exploitation of fossil fuels for energy generation has been arguably the biggest cause of the environmental damage that has taken place in the last century.
The Way Forward
According to a paper collated from 47 peer-reviewed research papers by Stanford University, we can shift to a landscape where we are entirely reliant on sustainable energy within the next 30 years. But it will take a combined global collaboration with the full support of policymakers and businesses to achieved superior geographical connectivity with solar, wind and hydropower. The first peg should be pinned onto the countries known for their oil deposits in the middle east. These countries are not only rich with oil but also with a lot of sunshine. Suppose the government of Saudi Arabia directs its developments efforts on building solar farms. In that case, the country could switch to 100% renewable energy by 2050, with 79% of the energy demand being fulfilled by solar power. These renewable energy project should be supported by investment in research and development of enhanced battery and water storage solutions to lower the cost of maintaining energy systems.
Energy storage will play a pivotal role in the transition to sustainable and clean energy to surmount the solar and wind resources' sporadic availability. Building infrastructure for effective distribution of power to places with limited renewable resources will reduce global dependence on oil, gas, and coal.
The challenges laid out in front are lofty, and any plan to overcome them will be ambitious. However, we still haven't crossed the threshold of point of no return. We can use technology as the champion that drives our transition to sustainability and mitigates climate change's impact on a larger scale, which translates to fewer flooding incidents, storms and droughts in the long run.
These initiatives will help in cleaning up our water and air resources. Pollution from burning fossil fuels kills millions of people every year, mostly in countries with large low to middle-income populations. These countries' population is exposed to toxic fumes from using resources such as wood, coal, and dung for their everyday energy needs. According to the WHO, nine out of ten people breathe polluted air, leading to a myriad of health-related issues. A future powered by wind, solar and other sustainable energy resources is realistic, provided we take urgent action.
References:
Gaur, P. (2019, March 31). 26.02 million households get electricity connections under Saubhagya scheme. Retrieved from Mint: https://www.livemint.com/politics/policy/26-02-million-households-get-electricity-connections-under-saubhagya-scheme-1554018490695.html
IBEF. (2020). Renewable Energy. India Brand Equity Foundation.
NITI Aayog. (2020). SDG India Index & Dashboard. NITI Aayog.
World Bank. (2014). Electric power consumption (kWh per capita). Retrieved from The World Bank: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.USE.ELEC.KH.PC
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