Renewable energy currently constitutes only 15% of the global energy pool. Understand the importance of the 7th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).
Do you know what the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are? In 2015, the Organization set 17 goals that are a global call to end poverty, protect the environment and climate, and ensure the prosperity of people everywhere in the world. The organization’s expectation is that the goals will be achieved by 2030.
Among the goals are the eradication of poverty, zero hunger and sustainable agriculture, health and well-being, gender equality, sustainable cities and communities and the 7th goal which is clean and affordable energy.
What is Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG)?
Ensuring access to clean energy corresponds to the 7th of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The objective is relevant as one in five people in the world still do not have access to modern electricity. That is, about 1.3 billion people still depend on wood, coal or other sources for cooking and heating.
In this sense, increasing access to clean and sustainable energy also contributes to the environment, reducing the use of non-renewable sources, which are responsible for climate change, due to the emission of greenhouse gases.
The overall goal of the 7th SDG is to “ensure reliable, sustainable, modern and affordable access to energy for all”. In addition, the goals were broken down into smaller actions:
- 7.1: By 2030, ensure universal, reliable, modern and affordable access to energy services;
- 7.2: By 2030, substantially increase the share of renewable energies in the global energy mix;
- 7.3: By 2030, double the global rate of energy efficiency improvement;
- 7.a: By 2030, strengthen international cooperation to facilitate access to clean energy research and technologies, including renewable energy, energy efficiency, and advanced and cleaner fossil fuel technologies, and promote investment in energy infrastructure and technologies clean energy;
- 7.b: By 2030, expand infrastructure and modernize technology to provide modern and sustainable energy services to all in developing countries, particularly least developed countries, small island developing States and developing countries landlocked, in accordance with their respective support programmes.
The development of the 7th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) in Brazil
In Brazil, the Civil Society Working Group for the 2030 Agenda prepared the Luz Report, a document that analyzed the country’s current situation in meeting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The latest version, carried out in 2021, pointed out that Brazil is one of the countries that most distanced itself from meeting the goals. It was identified that 82.8% of policies were in retreat, threatened or stagnant.
In the case of the objective of ensuring access to clean and renewable energy in the country, Brazil has not progressed satisfactorily. Despite the measures approved by the government to prohibit the cut of electricity due to default during the pandemic, low-income people were deeply affected, also failing to buy cooking gas (LPG). Therefore, target 7.1 became threatened.
Target 7.2 remains stagnant, with a negligible increase (2.2%) in renewable energy sources in the country’s energy matrix, from 46.2% in 2019 to 48.4% in 2020.
With no updated data since 2019, target 7.3 continues to roll back. Despite the advances, it is hardly credible that the country will be able to double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency by 2030 without a well-coordinated project. Finally, there is no data to measure the progress of goal 7.a and goal 7.b had insufficient progress. Despite the absence of data for the year 2020, from 2013 to 2019 the installed capacity of renewable energy generation per capita was expanded, but at a very slow pace.
For the country to achieve the goals, it is important that the government encourages measures to increase the share of renewable sources, as a way of reducing inequalities in access. In addition, clear guidelines must be established for a policy of long-term investments in energy efficiency.
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