Welcome to the United Nations
Input by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) to the 2022 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF)
“Building back better from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.
A. Progress, experience, lessons learned, challenges and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the implementation of SDGs 4, 5, 14, 15 and 17 from the vantage point of your intergovernmental body, bearing in mind the three dimensions of sustainable development and the interlinkages across the SDGs and targets, including policy implications of their synergies and trade-offs.
The COVID-19 pandemic has a devastating impact around the world. Alongside the negative effect on health and well-being, hundreds of millions of people have lost their jobs or seen their livelihoods threatened. Even in the face of the turmoil caused by the pandemic, energy systems based on renewables demonstrated remarkable resilience, showing technical reliability. With falling costs, renewable energy investments have grown steadily over the past 15 years, from USD 70 billion in 2005 to just over USD 300 billion in 2019. In 2020, investments in renewables reached over USD 320 billion.
Several global events in 2021, including the High-Level Dialogue on Energy (HLDE) and COP26 reaffirmed countries’ commitments to the energy transition, driven by this trend. The HLDE was the first global gathering on energy under the auspices of the General Assembly since the UN Conference on New and Renewable Sources of Energy held in Nairobi in 1981.
Global Roadmap for Accelerated SDG7, the outcome document of the HLDE, highlights the role of SDG 7 in achieving both the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, noting that: “Achieving SDG 7 will catalyse action to combat climate change and attain many other SDGs, including on poverty eradication, gender equality, climate change, food security, health, education, sustainable cities and communities, clean water and sanitation, decent jobs, innovation, transport, and refugees and other situations of displacement.”
In this light, the World Energy Transitions Outlook 2021 of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) outlines with its 1.5°C Scenario a pathway for the world to achieve the Paris Agreement goals and halt the pace of climate change by transforming the global energy landscape . IRENA estimates that the global energy transformation would require at least a doubling of annual investments compared to the current levels. USD 24 trillion of planned investments will have to be redirected from fossil fuels to energy transition technologies between now and 2050.
This comes with benefits. By investing in a sustainable future, we can ensure universal access to energy, education services and healthcare facilities while creating stable, productive economic opportunities for millions of people. Under IRENA’s 1.5°C Scenario, the renewable energy sector could account for 38 million jobs by 2030 and 43 million by 2050. Investment in the 1.5°C Scenario will yield a cumulative payback of at least USD 61 trillion by 2050. Every USD 1 spent on the energy transition should yield benefits valued at between USD 2 and USD 5.5 in the form of reduced negative externalities from human health and the environment.
IRENA continues to capture an increasingly comprehensive picture of the socio-economic impacts of the energy transition, demonstrating how steps towards a decarbonised energy future will positively affect economic activity, jobs - outweighing losses in the fossil fuel industries- and welfare, provided a holistic policy framework is in place.
SDG7 and SDG 4: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”
Over 759 million people lived without electricity access in 2019, and 3.5 billion received unreliable supply. Meanwhile access to modern energy services is closely linked to access to essential public services such as health care and education, and improves overall well-being and safety, particularly for women and children.
Energy access is vital for improving educational delivery in schools. Lighting enables teaching and learning in the early morning and evenings; electrification allows for the introduction of ICT and digital education into pedagogical methods and curriculum; it also improves student focus by enabling the cooling or heating of the classrooms. Reliable energy access is also linked to improvement in supply of water and sanitation in schools, as well as nutrition where schools also deliver mid-day meals. This importance is reflected in the fact that SDG 4 on Quality Education includes a specific indicator (4.a.1) on the proportion of schools with access to electricity, internet, computers, basic drinking water and handwashing facilities.
Off-grid renewable energy sources are also vital to providing online education in many places. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the transition to digital learning platforms and raised the risk that those without adequate infrastructure access will be left behind. The COVID-9 crisis is already placing utilities and off-grid enterprises in financial duress as the off-grid supply chain is being affected on multiple levels. The cash positions of off-grid companies are extremely tight, with approximately 70% of companies having no more than two months of operating capital available. Shutdowns of ports and flights in many countries will mean that imported batteries, solar panels, inverters, and smart meters will not be as readily available as they had been. Even internally, movement restrictions have slowed servicing of existing customers in rural areas and delivery of projects. Existing energy access programmes and initiatives may also experience delays in implementation because of the pandemic.
SDG7 and SDG 5: “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on women all over the world, amplifying or preserving the inequities they confront every day. At home, women have more domestic chores due to the impact of the pandemic. At work, they still represent a small share of the labour force.
With pandemic-related disruptions in economic activity, rural populations in developing countries face an impending income shock. Women are disproportionately affected by economic shutdowns, as they are more likely to be informal workers and entrepreneurs. Vulnerable households whose incomes are strained are less likely to be able to pay for electricity or clean cooking services, thus risking expansion of new access and those with access falling back into energy poverty.
Recent trends suggest that the world will fall short of the 2030 target for universal access to clean cooking by almost 30 percent, reaching only 72 percent of the population. Without urgent action, the environmental, social, and health toll caused by household air pollution is likely to continue, affecting women and children, because they bear a disproportionate share of the burden of gathering fuel and tending polluting stoves.
One of the key elements of a just energy transition is ensuring that the workforce includes people from underrepresented and marginalised groups. Population groups of concern in this context are women, minorities, people with disabilities, low-income people, youth and older workers. For many, the challenge is magnified where energy access is lacking. IRENA’s surveys have found that women account for only 32% of the overall renewable energy workforce and 21% of the wind workforce. When it comes to roles in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), these figures are even lower: 28% and 14%, respectively. While this demonstrates that women have a much stronger presence in renewable energy than in the energy sector as a whole and in oil and gas, it confirms that they remain underrepresented.
Both IRENA’s analyses and the rest of the literature are quite clear about the fact that women face a series of barriers that make them less likely than men to take up a career in renewable energy. And when women do join, they confront attitudes, perceptions and structural obstacles that can make it difficult for them to stay in the workforce and to advance in their careers. These barriers are not exclusive or specific to the energy sector, of course; they are found in the economy and society at large. But because women make up such a large share of the talent pool for renewable energy, dedicated measures are needed to ensure equal access to job opportunities and capital for women-led enterprises.
SDG7 and SDG 14: “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”
Oceans contain vast renewable energy potential – theoretically equivalent to more than double the world's current electricity demand. Nascent ocean energy technologies could cut CO2 emissions from power generation and help to ensure a sustainable, climate-safe energy future. Alongside other offshore renewable energy technologies, ocean energy – including wave, tidal, salinity gradient and ocean thermal energy conversion technologies – forms a crucial component in the world's emerging blue economy.
In addition to decarbonising the power system, offshore renewables have the potential to greatly contribute to the creation of a global blue economy and to the energy transition. This would help countries meet international policy goals. Simultaneously, islands and coastal communities could benefit from climate-safe recovery options amid the COVID-19 pandemic and coastal protection thanks to ocean energy devices.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, off-shore wind installation has risen thanks to falling costs. At the end of 2020, the global installed offshore wind capacity was more than 34 GW, up 6 GW from 2019 and an increase of around 11-fold from 2010, when the installed capacity was nearly 3 GW.
By the end of 2020, cumulative global installed ocean energy capacity – including tidal and wave energy as well as ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) and salinity gradient – was more than 515 MW. More than 98% of this capacity was operational, with 501.5 MW consisting of two large tidal barrage projects. Globally, 31 countries, primarily in the OECD, are pursuing ocean energy projects.
As of the end of August 2020, the cumulative installed floating solar PV capacity was around 2.6 GW from 338 active projects in 35 countries globally mainly on freshwater artificial reservoirs. The installed capacity has more than doubled from 1.1 GW in 2018. Due to space constraints on land, Islands could also benefit greatly from this technology. Maldives, Seychelles and Singapore are planning floating solar PV arrays of 5.8 MW, 11 MW and 50 MW, respectively.
Relatively little is known about the impact of ocean energy technologies on marine life due to the early stage of technology deployment. Negative impacts could arise in the form of habitat loss, animal-turbine interactions (e.g., collision risk, mainly of marine mammals, fish and birds), noise and electromagnetic fields produced by sea cables, which may have effects on aquatic species.
International shipping enables 80-90% of global trade and comprises about 70% of global shipping energy emissions.9 If the international shipping sector were a country, it would be the sixth or seventh-largest CO2 emitter, comparable to Germany. Yet, international shipping emissions fall outside national GHG emission accounting frameworks. Urgent action is necessary to accelerate the pace of the global energy transition and the decarbonisation of the global economy. Green hydrogen-based fuels set to be the backbone for the shipping sector’s decarbonisation.
The COVID-19 pandemic has heated up the race for leadership in green hydrogen, as many countries recognise the importance of hydrogen for addressing the twin challenges of climate change and economic recovery from COVID-19.10 By early August 2021, governments had allocated at least USD 65 billion in targeted support for clean hydrogen over the next decade, with France, Germany and Japan making the most significant commitments. As of November 2021, global announcements of hydrogen projects by 2030 add up to USD 160 billion of investment, with half of the investments being planned for green hydrogen production using renewable energy sources and electrolysis.
Water stress is a challenge for green hydrogen production. Hydrogen requires significant amounts of (pure) water as a feedstock. As the effects of climate change continue to exacerbate water stress, a growing number of countries may need to consider whether hydrogen production is suitable in the longer term. Investors have set their eyes on the locations with the best solar PV and wind resources to develop green hydrogen projects. The catch is that sunnier locations also tend to be the driest. More than 70% of planned electrolyser projects will be in water-stressed regions, such as Australia, Chile, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Spain. As a result, over 85% of the planned green hydrogen projects may need to source water via desalination.
Depending on how it is developed, hydrogen could positively or negatively affect sustainable development outcomes. For example, from a technical perspective, water required for hydrogen use is generally not perceived as a barrier to its deployment. However, climate change is multiplying water risks in locations currently seen as promising hydrogen production sites. A greater understanding of the multidimensional nature of global threats and vulnerabilities will make it possible to foresee and defuse certain risks that may come with the deployment of hydrogen on a major scale.
SDG5 and SDG 15: “Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss”
Sustainable energy can stimulate land restoration and conservation efforts and improve the economic sustainability of projects undertaken. For example, renewables can electrify rural health centers, provide solutions in the agri-food sector and alleviate poverty through integrated rural community development projects. In regions like Africa and particularly the Sahel, additional bioenergy production through land restoration activities can generate further benefits by lightening the burden of energy insecurity while also generating employment and income, thereby reducing poverty.
About 30% of the world’s energy is consumed within agri-food systems. Energy is also responsible for a third of agri-food systems’ emissions of greenhouse gases. Both systems must be transformed to meet current and future demand for food and energy in a fair, environmentally sustainable, and inclusive manner. A joint approach to the energy transition and to the transformation of agri-food systems is crucial to meet the SDGs and the Paris Agreement.
Hydrogen is used to produce all the world’s industrial ammonia. Ammonia is the main ingredient in synthetic fertilisers, which account for a significant part of the world’s crop yields. These hydrogen-based fertilisers now support approximately half the global population. Without hydrogen, agricultural productivity would plummet, jeopardising food security for billions of people.
To produce synthetic fertiliser, hydrogen is generally sourced from natural gas and coal, without carbon capture and storage. The expected boom in clean hydrogen could thus contribute to the decarbonisation of the global food supply chain. To the extent that it increases the supply of hydrogen on the market, it could also bolster global food security. These effects could be especially relevant for Sub-Saharan Africa, where fertiliser consumption was less than 20 kilogrammes per hectare (kg/ha) in 2018 – two to three times less than required to meet the needs of the agricultural sector. Inadequate use of fertiliser results in the depletion of soil nutrients, low agricultural productivity and less arable land per capita.
