The 2020 edition of Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report monitors and assesses attainments in the global quest for universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy by 2030. The latest available data and select energy scenarios are set forth in this year’s report, which finds that although the world continues to advance toward SDG 7, its efforts fall well short of the scale required to reach the goal by 2030.
The data and analyses presented in these pages were prepared before the COVID-19 pandemic and must be viewed in the light of this unprecedented crisis. Like most grave crises, the covid-19 pandemic shows how an unforeseen global calamity can disrupt trends and policies of long standing, with outcomes both expected and unpredictable, dire and surprising. With its widespread impact on societies and economies at all levels, including plummeting oil prices, disrupted supply chains, and the limited ability of many households and businesses to pay for electricity services, the pandemic is certain to affect the energy transition and progress toward SDG 7. At the same time, the crisis is pointing to the urgent need for access to reliable, affordable, sustainable, and modern energy—for hospitals and health facilities to treat patients, for schools to prepare children for the digital economy, for communities to pump clean water, and for people to gain access to information. The full impact of the covid-19 pandemic on energy access, energy efficiency, renewable energy deployment, and the full energy transition remains to be seen.
In response to the pandemic, countries around the world will have to take exceptional measures to bring the health emergency under control, limit its human toll, and avoid deep recession. Under such circumstances, countries have an opportunity to consider options for economic stimulus that not only respond to the immediate crisis, but also ensure longer-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability. At the heart of such objectives is access to modern energy, with its immense potential to spur the achievement also of other Sustainable Development Goals and global climate objectives. The SDG 7 custodian agencies—the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO)—therefore urge the international community and policy-makers to safeguard the gains already attained for SDG 7 and not lose sight of the need to continue action on affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.