7. Affordable and clean energy
Energy is central to nearly every major challenge and opportunity the world faces today. Be it for jobs, security, climate change, food production or increasing incomes, access to energy for all is essential. Ensuring access to affordable, reliable and modern energy for all has come one step closer due to recent progress in electrification, particularly in LDCs, and improvements in industrial energy efficiency. However, national priorities and policy ambitions still need to be strengthened to put the world on track to meet the energy targets for 2030.
Read our stories to learn more about SDG Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy
SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy is supported by Energy Development Corporation
News
Policy & Finance
Is China’s Belt and Road Initiative on the brink of a green shift?
Renewable energy projects have yet to appear in droves, but new coal power projects have largely been halted.
The Philippines' first real estate investment trust, or REIT, focused on clean energy made its debut on the country's stock market last year. China now has its eye on the financing channel too. Does this new mechanism come with drawbacks?
By continuing to approve new coal power plants and polluting factories, China’s local governments are courting future environmental and economic problems.
At least half of respondents want these subsidies to stop, reflecting a likely attitude shift as such cuts were seen as the least popular intervention previously. Most are still worried that the renewables push will hike up energy prices.
Opinion
Engaging the world’s largest polluter on climate solutions has not been smooth sailing. Supply chains are highly inter-connected and businesses find that they need to tread along a tightrope between China and the West, even on climate.
Carbon & Climate
Exploring the intersection of business and our ecology
Founder and managing director Jessica Cheam investigates the relationship between business and our natural world, and shares about the genesis of Eco-Business in this book chapter contribution to 'Peace and Nature', a book compilation of 50 essays and edited by Professor Tommy Koh, Lye Lin Heng and Shawn Lum launched in Singapore recently.
Food & Agriculture
The key to sustainable food systems
Achieving zero hunger, one of the Sustainable Development Goals, requires meeting another SDG: ensuring access to modern energy. In particular, the future of agriculture in the Global South depends on distributed renewable-energy solutions to address the challenges faced by smallholder farmers.
Indonesia could define new coal-powered generation as green under a tweaked version of its green taxonomy. Doing so, would relegate Indonesia to the bottom of the pack of global sustainable finance taxonomies.
Energy
Closing the clean tech gap
Carbon & Climate
The fossil fuel industry’s obstructionist climate change tactics
Videos
After 20 years without electricity, more than 50 households in Cebu's poorest district have been provided with solar energy, financed by carbon offsets.
Vietnam's wind market is thriving, but more work lies ahead if the country wants to power its booming economy without imperilling its people and the planet.
Southeast Asian nations are racing to bring clean, affordable power to their people, but one country is outrunning them all. How can states make their renewable energy transition a success?
In gridlocked, smoggy Southeast Asian cities, change is afoot to electrify transport and clear some of the world's most polluted skies. This video documents the pockets of hope for e-mobility around the most climate-vulnerable region.
Podcasts
In a region where large hydro projects and expanding biofuel plantations coincide with an upcoming coal phaseout, a laissez-faire approach could worsen existing inequalities and mar the success of a clean energy buildout.
Energy
‘Carrots, sticks, and hugs’: Scrutinising Indonesia’s US$20 billion just transition challenge
The populous coal-rich powerhouse has six months to tell investors how it plans to spend G7 money to decarbonise equitably. We ask experts about the risks, strategy, and opportunities.
Ambitious plans to transmit clean energy from India, China and Australia into Southeast Asia have been proposed in recent years. Eco-Business speaks with two energy experts on the prospects, challenges and ingredients for success.
Exclusive
In this new podcast series 'Climate Tech in Asia', Eco-Business speaks to Gogoro chairman and CEO Horace Luke about the company's recent listing on the Nasdaq and its quest to electrify Asia's ubiquitous two-wheelers and make battery swapping mainstream.
