The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development covers 17 goals, the seventh of which is "affordable and clean energy", namely: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy. (Click here for details) 

Under this major goal, there are five targets, the first of which is "By 2030, ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services".

● Current Situation

About the World

Improving Energy Supply in Developing Countries

Despite energy's critical role in catalyzing economic development and supporting people's health and livelihoods, the world remains severely off track to achieve universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030, as called for by Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7).

This reality is brought to light by Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report 2020, an annual report that tracks global, regional and country progress on the SDG7 targets of access to electricity and clean cooking, renewable energy and energy efficiency.

According to the latest data released by Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report 2020, 789 million people globally still lack access to electricity and 2.8 billion people—over a third of the world’s population—are unable to cook cleanly and safely. The lack of progress is even more troubling under the current circumstances of COVID-19 since energy resources are essential for countries to respond effectively to the pandemic, particularly for providing health-care services.

Text and photo source: seforall.org

About China

Electricity Service for Rural Residents Improved Significantly 

China regards ensuring and improving people's livelihood as the fundamental starting point of energy development, so as to ensure that urban and rural residents have access to basic energy supply and services, and play a basic role of energy supply in building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way and Rural Revitalization. 

Photo source: seforall.org

From 2016 to 2019, the total investment in rural power grid transformation and upgrading reached 830 billion RMB, the average power outage time in rural areas was reduced to about 15 hours, and the power consumption conditions of rural residents has been significantly improved. China has mproved the infrastructure construction of natural gas utilization, expanded the natural gas supply area, and guaranteed capacity of people's livelihood. Significant progress has been made in clean heating in northern China, which has improved the energy consumption conditions and living environment of urban and rural residents. By the end of 2019, the clean heating area in northern China has reached 11.6 billion square meters, an increase of 5.1 billion square meters over 2016..

Text source: White Paper on China's Energy Development in New Era

●  Cases

About the World

Renewable Energy in Sub Saharan Africa Supported by EU

European Union invested about 44 billion euros in sub Saharan Africa for developing renewable energy. The project aimed to increase access to clean energy for vulnerable areas and cities in Africa. It also transformed to household clean energy and solar energy to provide sustainable development for Sub Saharan African cities. 

Photo source: seforall.org

This investment will bring Africa's renewable energy production capacity to 10 gigawatts by 2020. By 2030, it will reach 300 gigawatts. Europe also plans to allocate up to 300 billion euros in 2021-2027 for projects that contribute to addressing climate change, of which about 100 billion euros will be used for research and innovation in the field of renewable energy.

Text source: ifeng.com

Blockchain Power Trading Platform in South Africa 

Blockchain has natural advantages in data confidentiality, smart contract and ecological incentive, which can greatly improve reliable supply of intermittent and unpredictable renewable energy.

Photo source: biying.com

South Africa has built a blockchain power trading platform - Sun Exchange. This is a crowdfunding platform based on the rental market of solar power generation equipment. Participants from all over the world can purchase the components of solar panels on this platform and lease them to schools, hospitals and enterprises in South Africa. They can obtain monthly investment income according to electricity consumption, and the funds from crowdfunding will be invested in small and medium-sized solar power projects. Supported by Sun Exchange, South Africa's high-quality solar power projects have obtained initial funds, enterprises and institutions have used solar power, and investors participating in crowd funding can obtain annual investment returns ranging from 10% to 15%.

Text source: China Energy News

About China

ETI Integration Included in the UN Policy Briefs

From July 6 to 15, the 2021 United Nations High-Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development (HLPF) was held in New York. The proposal from GEIDCO, i.e. Promoting Energy Transportation Information Network (ETI) Integration to Advance Interlinkages with the SDGs submitted was incorporated into the policy briefs of this forum, providing a Chinese solution for implementing the "Agenda 2030" and fostering new paradigm of high-quality development of the global economy. 

The proposal of GEIDCO innovatively puts forward a theoretical framework of energy, transportation and information networks (ETI) Integration, backed up by various application scenarios and case analysis. It calls for incorporating "ETI Integration" into the working framework of intergovernmental cooperation, strengthening policy support, and carrying out joint planning and construction in energy interconnection, transportation electrification and digitalization.

Text and photo source: geidco.org.cn

Shenzhen’s Electric Vehicles Leading the World

Under the background of "carbon peak, carbon neutral", Shenzhen promotes consumption of new energy vehicles and development of industrial and innovation chain, realizes the transformation from pilot to demonstration, and builds the global benchmark of "new energy city".

Photo source: biying.com

Over the past decade, Shenzhen has been leading in the field of electric vehicles and set many global benchmarks. Shenzhen is the first city in the world with all electric buses, and the largest city in the world to operate pure electric taxis. It is also the first city in the world to realize the commercialization and large-scale operation of pure electric heavy trucks. As a leading demonstration area, Shenzhen continued to accelerate the electrification process of public vehicles.

Text source: news.qq.com

●  Background

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Initiated by the United Nations

On 1 January, 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including 169 targets, of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit — officially came into force. Countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.