World not on track to meet UN’s clean energy goals

21/05/2018

The world is not on track to meet the UN’s 2030 clean energy targets, with progress on decarbonising electricity not being matched in the heating and transport sectors, according to a new report from five international agencies.

The report, Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report, tracks progress towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 7: to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. Despite the headline finding it says that real progress is being made in certain areas, particularly in access to electricity in the least developed countries and in industrial energy efficiency.

The report, based on data to 2015 for renewables and energy efficiency and to 2016 for access to electricity and clean cooking, breaks progress down into the goal’s key areas. Its main findings are:

Renewable energy

    Based on current policies, the share of renewables in the world’s energy mix is expected to reach 21% by 2030, with ‘modern renewables’ (excluding solid biomass) growing to 15%, falling short of the ‘substantial’ increase demanded by the SDG7 target. Renewables reached 23% of electricity generation worldwide in 2015. But electricity accounted for only 20% of total final energy consumption that year, highlighting the need to accelerate progress in transport (3% renewables) and heating (25% renewables, mostly biomass).

    Access to electricity and clean cooking

      One billion people – 13% of the world’s population – still live without electricity. Sub-Saharan Africa, and Central and South Asia continue to be the areas of the world with the largest access deficits. The number of people gaining access to power has been accelerating since 2010, but needs to ramp up further to achieve universal access to electricity by 2030. If current trends continue, an estimated 670mn people will still live without electricity in 2030. Three billion people – 40% of the world’s population – do not have access to clean cooking fuels and technologies. Clean cooking lags the furthest behind of all the four energy targets, and if the current trajectory continues, 2.3bn people will continue to use traditional cooking methods in 2030.

      Energy efficiency

        Global energy intensity – the ratio of energy used per unit of GDP – fell at an accelerating pace of 2.8% in 2015, the fastest decline since 2010. However, performance still falls short of the yearly decline needed to meet the SDG7 target of doubling the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency by 2030. Industrial energy intensity saw the biggest improvements, at 2.7% per annum since 2010. Progress in the transport sector was more modest, especially for freight transportation.

        The report was put together by 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).

        Dr Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said:         ‘There is an urgent need for action on all technologies, especially on renewables and energy efficiency, which are key for delivering on three critical goals – energy access, climate mitigation and lower air pollution.’

        The full report is available at         bit.ly/2Ie2Osn

        ·      IRENA has released the latest edition of its long-term renewable energy outlook, which says that the speed of global renewable energy adoption needs to increase by at least a factor of six to meet the energy-related emission reduction needs of the Paris Agreement.

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        Subjects: Energy efficiency, Transport, Metering, monitoring and targeting, Heating and heaters, Decarbonisation, Renewable energy