SDG 7: Ensuring Access to Affordable, Reliable,

Sustainable & Modern Energy for All – Can We?

Introducing William Kamkwamba:

Back in 2001, a day in Masitala, (a rural hamlet in Malawi) ended when the sun set. But 14-year-old
William Kamkwamba, would much rather study than sleep. There was just one constraint – How
would he study in the absence of light?

Kamkwanba, who had dropped out of school then, saw picture of a windmill and set about making
one from scrap PVC pipes, rusty bicycle and car parts and blue gum trees. His windmill began
powering lights in his room.

Today, Kamkwamba is a senior in high school at the African Leadership Academy, Johannesburg. His
windmills, still functioning have grown in numbers and now provide clean water for the village,
micro-irrigation in the fields, mobile phone services and internet. Kids from his village now aim for
education. They no longer have to study under the sooty flame of kerosene lamps.

Kamkwamba’s story repeats itself across countries and continents. It succinctly captures how lives
can be transformed just by ensuring access to electricity. Sustainable Development Goal 7 aims as
just the same for everyone.

SDG 7:
The experiences and learnings from implementing the Millennium Development Goals for tackling
poverty took shape into 17 interconnected goals, called the Sustainable Development Goals at the
United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development at Rio de Janeiro (Rio +20, 2012). SDG 7
aimed at ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all is an essential
part of these 17 goals. It has 5 targets under it:

7.1 By 2030, ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy services

7.2 Increasing substantially the share of clean energy in the global energy mix by 2030

7.3 doubling the global rate of increase in energy efficiency by 2030

7.a By 2030, enhancing cooperation between countries to facilitate access to clean energy
research and technologies, including clean energy, energy efficiency, and advanced and
cleaner fossil fuel technologies, and promoting investment in energy infrastructure and
clean energy technologies

7.b By 2030, expanding infrastructure and upgrading technology for implementing modern
and sustainable energy services for everyone in developing countries, particularly LDCs and
SIDS

The Paris Climate Accords (COP 21, 2015) and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015)
provide common standards to these targets, help in evaluating our current standing and efforts
 required to achieve them. A set of indicators have been developed to assess the progress. These
include:

 Proportion of population with access to electricity

 Proportion of population mostly with primary reliance on clean fuels and technology
 Renewable and clean energy share in the total final energy consumption
 Energy intensity which is measured in terms of primary energy and GDP
 International economic help to developing countries in support of clean energy R&D in
renewable energy production, including in hybrid systems
 Investments in building energy efficiency as a percentage of GDP and the amount of FDI in
financial transfer for infrastructure and technology

Where are we?

Thanks to the specificity of the indicators, measuring the progress has become easier. Quoting
directly from the “Report to Secretary General: Progress towards sustainable development goals
(2019)”, it is clear that progress has definitely been positive, but far more needs to be done.

 The global electrification rate rose from about 83 per cent in 2010 to 87 per cent in 2015,
with the increase accelerating to 89 per cent in 2017. Unfortunately, some 840 million people
around the world still don’t have access to electricity.
 The global share of the population with ready access to clean cooking fuels and
technologies became 61 per cent in 2017 from 57 per cent in 2010. Despite this, close to 3 billion
people still depend primarily on inefficient & polluting cooking systems.
 The clean energy share of total energy consumption slowly increased from 16.6 per cent in
2010 to 17.5 per cent six years later, though much faster change is required to meet climate
goals. Though the absolute level of clean energy consumption has increased by more than 18 per
cent since 2010, only since 2012(which is not enough to meet the goals) has the growth of clean
energy outpaced the growth of total energy consumption.
 Globally, the ratio of energy used per unit of GDP, improved from 5.9 in 2010 to 5.1 in six
years, a rate of improvement of 2.3 per cent, which is still not enough to reach the 2.7 per cent
annual rate needed to reach target 3 of SDG 7.
 International economic help to developing countries in support of renewable energy
reached $18.6 billion in 2016, doubling from $9.9 billion in 2010.

What about India:

India accounts for one sixth of world’s population and a significant share of people without access to
clean and sustainable energy. Indian contribution for SDG 7 thus becomes essential for the global
targets to be met. In the proceeding sections, we break down Indian progress on this front – the
governmental policies and its implementation, Role of private sector and success stories from efforts
of common people. The aim is to understand what could be done in future.