Sustainable Development Concept

Sustainable Development Goals (herein after referred as SDGs) are also called Global Goals which are referred to universal call action in order to eliminate poverty and uplift people’s lives, protect the environment and ensure that all the individuals are able to enjoy peace and prosperity. There are 17 goals which are built on the successes of the Millennium Development Goals which covers areas such as innovation, peace and justice, economic inequality, climate change, sustainable consumption, among other priorities (Sachs, 2012).The United National Development Programme has interconnected these goals which involve tackling issues which are most commonly associated with another. The importance of energy has increased in recent times due to which one of the SDGs is focused on energy and promoting affordable and clear energy. Many other SDGs are interconnected with energy because it is central in nearly every major challenge and opportunity. This essay will focus on evaluating the role of energy in SDGs and how it influences their policies (Sustainable Development Goals, 2018).

Concept of sustainable development (SD) is the process of forming principles to fulfil human development goals while sustaining the ability of natural resources for conserving future nature resources and ecosystem’s services (Sachs, 2012). Thus, the sustainable development concept basically interconnects various socio-economic factors like transportation, future land-use planning, education visions, and urban density (Bass & Dalal-Clayton, 2012). Moreover, the total seventeen goals of the sustainability accomplishment schemes need to address issues include greenhouse gases emissions, environment, climate change, and energy generation demand. In this way, concept of sustainable development does not comprise any single goal achievement but it is a broad concept covering various challenges, problems and factors of overall country development (Lu et al., 2015).

In 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted SDGs which are set to be completed by 2030 in which one dedicated and stand-alone goal is on energy (SDG 7). This goal focuses on ensuring the access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for everyone by 2030 (Sustainable Development Goals, 2018). Energy is central to the 2030 agenda for achieving sustainable development goal and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The objective of this goal is to create new opportunities and jobs, providing better health and education facilities, empowering women, youth children, protection from climate change, building sustainable, equitable and inclusive communities by ensuring that affordable, reliable, sustainable and clean energy is accessible to billions of people. Without access to clean and sustainable energy, it becomes difficult for organisations to conduct their operations to ensure that they are able to build their products in an eco-friendly manner.

These 17 SDGs cooperatively requiring effective as well as sustainable energy use aims to proper execution, attainment of set short-term targets by 2030. No human development can possible without fuelling the engine with the energy input (Kaygusuz, 2012). Moreover, on an average 781 million public, which is thirty nine per cent of the globe’s population, during 2016 could not have clean energy fuels, as well as cooking technologies (Birol, 2018).

Goals 1 and 2 of SDGs are focusing on issues including poverty and hunger from all over the globe, hence energy sustainability is essential to be implemented (United Nations Development Programme, 2018). These goals 1 and 2 can only be achieved by ensuring global food security, refining nutrition and supporting sustainable agriculture. Besides, all addressing methods of energy issues need proper energy utilization. Moreover, goal of removing child mortality can also achieved from enough and safe energy utilization. Likewise, we can certainly identify the role of energy in all steps of SDGs. Further, goals 3 and 4 out of SDGs are related to global primary education and enriched community health. Hence, adequate lighting can make children study at late night too, and enough clean energy access helps rustic school system to attract good teachers and professors (United Nations, 2018).

Energy Role for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Furthermore, acquiring goals 5 and 6 those are about ensuring water sanitation hygiene and removing gender inequality, sustainable energy use is mandatory to be ensured for the world. Additionally, water treatment plants of world’s industries run from electrical power only, so renewable energy use can solve the issue of scarcity of safe and clean water (United Nations Development Programme, 2018).

Seventh sustainable development goal is clearly focusing on global energy requirements, thus it can only be achieved by implying electrification advancement, explicitly among Load dispatch centres (LDCs) and technologically advanced energy efficiency devices (Watson et al., 2010).

Goal-8 and 9, of the development goals are having a target of evolving sincere work as well as economic growth. Additionally, for the accomplishment of goal-8, we must use newly invented renewable energy sources and apply them on innovative new energy projects with the help of information technologies, so that world economies can reach their at most heights (Sustainable Development Goals, 2018).

Moreover, for attaining rest of the SDGs such as effective and green industrialisation, reducing inequality, optimizing energy generation through conservation and its appropriate consumption is essential (Pearce et al., 2013). SDGs 11 and 12 focus on ensuring sustainable energy consumption, building safe, secure, sustainable and resilient global cities as well as lifestyle, which is only possible through creation of directed energy policies worldwide. Besides, SDGs 15 and 16 encompasses environment and societal development; to have reliable and adequate energy use for the 360 degree development of the globe (Sachs, 2012). Finally, goal-17 of SDGs is about strengthening global nation’s partnerships, in order to attain global energy sustainability as any single country cannot battle alone.

There are a lot of challenges during the process of achieving sustainable energy for the universe by 2030 and few energy issues those would likely to appear in future are as follows:

As we know that there would be a number of financial barriers in between locating SDGs and implementing them effectively. These monetary barriers will occur in future whenever we will attempt to achieve energy sustainability for the world because successful implementation of sustainable energy use needs wider technologies as well as more secured power for the effective operation. Thus, one universal resolution to the above problem can be international partnerships or regional partnerships, which can allow mutually funding for the future renewable energy projects.

Drafting sustainability oriented energy use policies and their on-time implementation is a huge challenge for the global government and administration. Additionally, energy pricing process takes a lot of attention and consideration on account for its sustainable requirements. On the other hand, enough and clean energy access requires to be economically priced so that it could be affordable for needy, rural and backward communities.

Creating an effective business model for universal sustainable energy access is a challenge for the stake-holders of sustainable energy benefits.

Due to major contribution of conventional resources in the efficiency gains, generating that much large efficiency from non-conventional energy sources has become an energy issue. We get daily use energy from non-renewable energy resources like oil, thermal power, natural gas and coal; hence it is a biggest challenge to generate it from renewable sources. During the process of supplying enlarged electricity demand of the communities, we need to extend the efficiency gains from the renewable projects. Besides, these potential efforts of finding the most efficient methodologies to create renewable energy sources fuelled system will save conventional natural resources (Nilsson et al., 2016).

Likely Energy Challenges and Issues While Accomplishing SDGs

Universal solution for all probable energy challenges is the energy sustainability; because it would ensure sustainable and green world development, solve poverty problem and create great future opportunities for a sustainable prospect (Griggs et al., 2013). Therefore, sustainable use of energy covers following ways of SDGs implementation:

If the consumption of diesel, petrol and other oil fuels will be continuing at present rate for the daily routine transportation; then a huge scarcity of transportation fuel will occur in future. Thus, rail transportation is the best suited way of energy conserving transportation from the future energy conservation point of view.

To carry newly invented renewable energy an enormously efficient, strong, resilient, larger and smart grid is required to be built (Union of concerned Scientists, 2018). Through HVDC transmission, low power loss devices, high power factor techniques, enhanced power security, and smarter grid revolution increased electrical energy demands of future can be fulfilled easily (Watson et al., 2010).

Renewable or green source fuelled vehicles can solve the issues of deficiency of non-renewable resources in the nature. Besides, vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology is very much useful in order to replace conventional fuels by the renewable energy through hybrid electrical vehicles. Additionally, we should also create the electric vehicle charging methodology to authenticate V2G enabled vehicles for achieving SDGs by 2030 (Nelder, 2009).

Conclusion

In conclusion, implementation of all SDGs requires effective sustainable energy use among all state and regions of all countries of the globe. SDG scheme is an action plan for the global public, planet welfare and hence energy sustainability is directly connected with the future sustainable goals execution. If the SDGs will be attained successfully then it will transform the whole world by 2030. Hence, sustainable energy use is so much important and area of concern today so that it can fulfil the future global needs. The discussion illustrated the energy role for accomplishing all SDGs. Besides, along with identifying, addressing the key challenges in sustainable energy use was done with the help of this discussion.

Thus, we can conclude that sustaining traditional energy materials will help in effective implementation of the SDGs. As a future suggestion we must identify of the important role of sustainable energy in sustainable development goals and solving those energy problems is mandatory for the bright future.

References

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