PrintGoal 7 and its Targets
Goal 7 is to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all. There are five targets associated with this goal, each having at least one indicator of success. The intent of the targets is to set discrete, measurable actions, with a way to assess progress and performance that will lead to meeting the main goal. We see in the goal and the targets' actions that will get at the key tenets that drive the energy dialogue- reliability, security, and accessibility.
The Sustainable Development Goals
Read the Executive Summary and scan the rest of the report, Tracking SDG 7, Energy Progress Report 2022. Pay attention to improvements in the targets since 2010 and note the variations. You will note that improvement is not consistent across all targets. If you need an overview refresher, go back to the required reading with the 17 SDGs and click on Goal 7.
Questions to guide your reading:
- Do you get a sense of what may be holding back progress where it has fallen short?
- Or are the targets too ambitious?
- In your opinion, do these targets get us to the overall goal?
One of the critiques against the SDGs is that they are too overreaching. In others they call for an ideal end state that is very hard to meet, and even if met, hard to validate. Considering that the goals have ten-year timelines, do you think Goal 7 is even realistic? The challenge with setting such goals is that progress is difficult to characterize. For example, if the ultimate goal is that the goal applies to everyone, then it is hard to say if the progress that was made is good or bad.
Let us think about the four attributes we learned earlier, reliability, security, accessibility, and sustainability. Do you feel all four aspects are addressed with Goal 7? Arguably, these four attributes are key and if Goal 7 doesn’t collectively address these, this SDG may not be the right path forward.
As we go through the rest of the class, let’s keep these aspirational SDGs goals in mind in assessing progress in these areas of reliability, security, and accessibility and sustainability.