Dashboard map for 2022 SDG Index Goal #7 ratings Data source: sdgindex.org
Population with access to electricity (%)
Much of the world population is on track to meet the 2030 goal of 100% access to electricity, except for the low-income and lower-middle income countries, plus Libya. 90.5% of the world population has access to electricity, with an upward trend, though still leaving 759 million people without electricity. We can leverage so much economic growth off electricity, including access to remote health care and education via broader internet connectivity - a key driver for the poorer countries to converge in living standards with more developed countries.
The key issue is rural electrification, managing to ensure remote communities have access to electricity. Spare a thought for someone living in rural Africa, without even the notion of what an air conditioner is. Blankets of sub-Saharan Africa are devoid of electricity. It takes little imagination to envisage the relative deprivation it must be to live without it. Africa holds the capacity to transform from the Dark Continent, in terms of access to electricity, to a giant of energy exporting. This is a feasibility, in contrast to foreordained, and would rely on myriad factors to actualise, such as:
investments in long-distance transmission lines
grids to connect the continent to supply other regions
We need to be able to raise the funds to pay for the electrification of those developing countries off-track to meet this indicator.
Summary: For OECD country readers, affirm your annual commitment to give 0.7% of your gross income as aid, aiming for all to have access to electricity.
Population with access to clean fuels and technology for cooking (%)
The other side of the coin for SDG #7 is the cleanliness of the cooking methods used. The ‘cleanliness’ of energy is a serious factor for those living in poverty. The use of certain fuels results in smoke in confined mud-brick huts, polluting the home, and damaging health to the point of fatality.
Within SDG #3, we explored the topic of chronic respiratory disease, and saw how dirty cooking fuels contribute to illnesses from indoor pollution. Such dirty sources include stoves burning charcoal, coal, crop cuttings, animal manure, kerosene, and wood.
Clean cooking fuels and technology include electricity, liquefied petroleum gas, natural gas, biogas, solar, and alcohol fuels like methanol or ethanol. We’re trying to dissuade people from burning fossil fuels like LPG and natural gas, so electricity generated by renewable energy is our primary aim.
High-income country readers know by now what the solution is, vis-a-vis the LDCs, to afford access to clean fuels. But for all readers living in countries off-track, where available and affordable, cook with one of the above-mentioned clean fuels.
Summary:
For OECD country readers, affirm your annual commitment to give 0.7% of your gross income as aid, aiming for all to have access to clean fuels and technology for cooking by 2030.
For developing country readers: use clean cooking fuels, where available and affordable.
CO₂ emissions from fuel combustion per total electricity output (MtCO₂/TWh)
This indicator measures the intensity of carbon emissions in the production of electricity. To quantify this, we use the amount of carbon dioxide released by burning the fuel which results in electricity, divided by the amount of electricity output. At the national level for which the SDG Index deals, this measure is in megatonnes (Mt) of carbon dioxide i.e., a million tonnes. To measure electricity output, it's terawatt-hours. Watts is a measurement for units of energy - if you know where your electricity meter is on your property, you can look at the dial measuring the electricity you’re using moment to moment. The meter measures in kilowatt-hours, which is also the unit of energy displayed on your electricity bill. A kilowatt-hour is the use of a thousand watts in an hour, whereas a terawatt-hour is a trillion watts an hour. So, a terawatt-hour is the best scale of measurement for describing the annual output of electricity for a whole country for a year.
The aim by 2030 is to bring the emissions of carbon dioxide (i.e., a carbon atom bonded with two oxygen atoms) released from the burning of fuel for electricity to zero. For every terawatt-hour a country uses for electricity, this power will result in no CO₂ being emitted.
Power plants emit CO₂ when they burn fossil fuels to generate electricity, but there are other ways to generate electricity besides burning fossil fuels e.g., renewable energy. Therefore, electrification is one of the most important pillars of decarbonisation. We can electrify as many power sources as possible, so long as the primary source of this energy is decarbonised.
So many countries are lagging, yet the solution is to decarbonise, ensuring the electricity you use is generated from renewable sources.
Now, let's bring the scale used to measure this indicator down to the level of you, the individual. Here, we'll measure in kilowatt-hours and tonnes of carbon dioxide, rather than terawatt-hours and megatonnes. If the electricity you get from your electric utility is from a power plant burning fossil fuels, then it’s emitting carbon dioxide. Remember, we’re trying to decarbonise whatever number of kilowatt-hours you’re using in your home or business.
So long as the electricity and heating sources we use emit carbon dioxide, the surface temperature of Earth will warm, endangering our existence. One way or another, you have nine years to figure out a solution appropriate to your circumstances, whether solar photovoltaic, geothermal, hydropower or wind.
Summary: Use 100% electricity generated from either renewable or carbon neutral sources, aiming to end CO₂ emissions from electricity output by 2030.
Share of renewable energy in total primary energy supply (%)
If as a reader, you live in a developed country, with the option available of 100% renewable energy supply to your home or small business, get it. The price of renewable energy is now - thank goodness - at parity with fossil fuels.
What’s to be overcome is the politicisation of the issue. The press of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has a potent stranglehold on political discourse, as is true in the US and UK. In Australia, such media seems tied up in coal and other fossil fuel-producing interests, colouring the everyday discourse of average citizens.
This indicator looks at the portion of renewables amongst all energy sources (e.g., oil, coal, gas, nuclear, etc.), including imports and excluding exports.
As of 2019, the global share of renewables in the total primary energy supply was 14%. With renewables at price parity with fossil fuels, 29% of the share of electricity was generated from renewables as of 2020. For this indicator, we’re aiming by 2030 for a 51% share of renewable energy among primary energy sources. By this definition, renewable energy includes hydropower, geothermal energy, solar energy, wind power, tidal and wave power, biofuels, and power generated from municipal waste when renewable. Excluded is pumped-storage hydroelectricity, a type of hydroelectric power storage used in an electric power system to balance loads.
We need all these primary energy sources to generate our electricity, heat our spaces and water, for air conditioning, transportation, as well as stand-alone off-the-grid power systems. The present reality is solar and wind power is cheap. Beyond 2030, we need to get to 100% renewable energy by 2050, and wind and solar are our easiest paths. Innovative technologies will play a part in our decarbonisation plans past mid-century, as well as for net negative emissions, which involves removing carbon already in the atmosphere and storing it in carbon sinks, like soil or vegetation. Part of the solution also entails ceasing fossil fuel subsidies.
Below is how the above energy sources work, in a basic way:
geothermal gets thermal energy from the Earth’s crust
solar power converts sunlight into electricity, using photovoltaics, or concentrates sunlight using mirrors. When photovoltaic panels are exposed to light, they create an electric current. The materials used to make photovoltaics are semiconducting, meaning the electric current flows less free than along copper in electrical wire. Solar-heated water receives sunlight’s heat via the solar thermal collector sitting on roofs
Wind turbines convert the kinetic power of wind for electricity generation
Hydroelectricity converts the force of moving water into electricity
Biofuels create electricity or heat by burning as a fuel, the same as fossil fuels, except without the greenhouse effect
Note, consumption of energy is different from the supply of energy. You may supply some renewable energy if you have solar panels which feed-in to the grid. But to tailor this indicator to your personal scale, we’ll focus on the demand created by you from a utility for renewable energy. But if you’re able to supply your own renewable energy, all the better.
If you live in a country off-track for this indicator, then ensure by 2030 you’ve figured out a way to generate 51% of your energy needs using renewable energy.
Summary: Ensure your energy supply is 51% or more from renewable sources by 2030.