Global Tracking Framework 2017 - Meeting Energy Goals by 2030

In every area of sustainable energy, a number of countries are outperforming the world, despite slower than required progress overall to achieve global energy access, renewable energy and energy efficiency goals, a new report finds.

Entitled Global Tracking Framework 2017 – Progress Toward Sustainable Energy, the report points to the International Energy Agency’s projections to show that at the current rate of progress, only 91 percent of the world will have electricity access in 2030, while only 72 percent will have access to clean cooking. Improvements in energy intensity are also projected to fall short of the 2030 goal while the share of renewables will only reach 21 percent by that time.

Those estimates underscore the need for urgent action.

Energy is the cornerstone of economic growth. With access to modern, reliable and affordable energy, a child can study at night, small businesses can thrive, women can walk home under the safety of working streetlights and hospitals can function efficiently and save lives. That is why reaching Sustainable Energy for All’s (SEforALL) objectives of universal access to modern energy, doubling the rate of improvement of energy efficiency and doubling the share of renewable energy by 2030 is crucial.

To make meaningful improvements, higher levels of financing and bolder policy commitments, along with the willingness on countries’ part to embrace new technologies on a much wider scale are essential, according to the report.

Key findings from the GTF regarding Renewable energy:

• Overall, progress was modest on this front, with the share of renewable energy in the world’s total final energy consumption increasing slightly from 17.9 percent in 2012 to 18.3 percent in 2014. While new power generation technologies such as wind and solar are growing rapidly – representing a third of the expansion in renewable energy consumption in 2012–2014 – they are growing from a very small base, accounting for only 4% of renewable energy consumption in 2012. The challenge is to increase reliance on renewable energy in the heat and transport sectors, which account for 80 percent of global energy consumption.
• How rapidly the world’s 20 largest energy consumers meet demand with modern renewables is key to reaching this goal. In 2012-2014, only 13 of these countries succeeded in increasing their modern renewable energy share and only Italy and the United Kingdom increased their renewable energy share by more than 1 percentage point in that period.

To find out more about Key findings from the GTF regarding Electrification, Cooking and Energy efficiency please access here.

GTF, funded by the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) was produced jointly with the International Energy Agency (IEA) and in partnership with 20 partner agencies in the energy space including five United Nations Regional Economic Commissions – ECLAC, ESCAP, ESCWA, UNECA, UNECE.