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Sustainable energy development (SED) is a crucial component of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), aiming to maintain economic and social progress while protecting the environment and mitigating climate change’s effects. SED serves as a transition paradigm for sustainable development, providing a blueprint for energy peace and prosperity for people and all uses.
Year | Protocol and Description | Ref. |
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1972 | Stockholm Meeting The first international meeting devoted to global environmental issues, which led to the formation of the Brundtland Commission. |
[4] |
1974 | International Energy Agency (IEA) A year after the Stockholm meeting, a global oil crisis occurred in 1973. In response to the global physical disruption in oil supplies, IEA, under the framework of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), was formed to compile data on the international oil market with the aim of promoting energy efficiency and conservation and fostering international technological cooperation for research and development. Subsequently, there have been relevant energy reports and world energy outlooks from the IEA.
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[5][6][7] |
1987 | Our Common Future—Brundtland Report At the Brundtland Commission meeting, sustainable development was introduced, with energy being an integral part of the concept, because of concerns about the global oil crisis. |
[8] |
1988 | International Climate Negotiations—Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) The United Nations Environmental Protection (UNEP) Agency sought an international convention to provide direction for restricting greenhouse gas emissions while improving energy and industrial processes and driving sustainable development. Then, the IPCC was formed, which has, since its establishment, made public findings from the scientific community and summarized them in the following reports, which were more specific to energy and sustainable development. These include the following:
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[9] |
1992 | UN Agenda 21 Following the Brundtland report Our Common Future, the IPCC’s formation, and the identification of the importance of energy, an action plan was developed that was discussed in more detail in the UN Kyoto Protocol of 1997. |
[1] |
1992 | UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) As a result of the action plan developed by the UN Agenda 21, countries made a global commitment to work together to develop solutions to limit rising global average temperatures, and the UNFCC was founded. |
[10] |
1995 | Conference of Parties (COP) The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the highest decision-making body for the UNFCC, which first held its meetings in Berlin every year (with this year’s known as COP28, to be held in Dubai, UAE), involving delegates from all parties’ countries, meeting to assess the convention’s effectiveness through evaluating national communications and emission inventories of countries working towards sustainable societies. |
[11] |
1997 | UN General Assembly The 1997 UN General Assembly emphasized sustainable energy production, distribution, and use for improved sustainable development. The UN Commission on Sustainable Development focused on atmosphere, energy, and transport in 2001. |
[12] |
1997 | UNDP Kyoto Protocol A protocol was developed to ensure financial assistance for clean energy projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which emphasizes that organizations must engage in sustainability practices to be able to receive funding for energy programs and projects. |
[13] |
2000 | UN Millennium Declaration In September of 2000, world leaders signed the United Nations Millennium Declaration, committing to work together to end extreme poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and gender discrimination. However, sustainable energy targets were not included in the declaration. |
[14] |
2000 | UNDP World Energy Assessment Report The first proposal for sustainable energy development was introduced in this assessment report. |
[1] |
2001 | UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-9) The UN Commission on Sustainable Development was birthed from the UN 1997 General Assembly, which proposed CSD-9 to focus on atmosphere, energy, and transport. |
[15] |
2002 | UN World Summit on Sustainable Development Following the establishment of UN CSD-9, the world’s first summit on sustainable development was held in Johannesburg, where the concept of a sustainable energy development initiative was discussed and adopted, alongside another set of activities that considered respect for the environment, with ten-year regional and national sustainable production and consumption programs being proposed. |
[16] |
2003 | UN World Summit on Sustainable Development report A report on the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development discussion was released. |
[16] |
2004 | UN-Energy Following the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development, the UN Energy inter-agency mechanism was established to aid countries in transitioning to sustainable energy by accelerating roadmap implementation, especially through the activities listed in the resolution of the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development report. Consequently, this initiative called for existing and newly created energy organizations at the national, regional, and international levels to come together to work towards sustainable development. |
[16] |
2005 | Energy Indicators for Sustainable Development Five international agencies and organizations (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), International Energy Agency (IEA), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), European Environment Agency (EEA), and Eurostat), recognized worldwide as leaders in energy and environmental statistics and analysis, presented a set of indicators for sustainable energy development. |
[17] |
2009 | International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) IRENA, an international organization promoting renewable energy adoption and sustainable use, was formed to ensure that both industrialized and developing countries’ needs are addressed.
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[18] |
2010 | UN Millennium Development Goals follow-up resolution As a follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium summit and the declaration of 2000, energy was recognized and stressed as necessary to achieving the MDGs and sustainable development. |
[14][19] |
2011 | UN Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) UN initiative focused on advancing sustainable energy development. Presently, the SE4ALL has become an international organization that works with the UN and leaders in government, the private sector, financial institutions, civil society, and philanthropies to accelerate Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7)—access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030—in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change |
[20] |
2015 | UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development The SDGs were first introduced, with energy and climate change established as an integral part of sustainable development, with SDG 7 for energy and SDG 13 for climate change actions. |
[21] |
2015–present | Development of SDG Trackers As a result of the responsibilities for stocktaking and progress measurement of implementation towards sustainable development achievements, different organizations have used the targets and indicators from the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to build platforms to assess the progress levels of countries. 2015 and later years to present—Research on SDG indicators’ assessment and composition. 2019—SDG tracker systems and platforms. |
[22][23] |
2016 | National Determined Contribution (NDC) The Lima COP agreed to cut emissions using collective and collaborative efforts under the concepts of NDC referenced in Article 4(2) of the Paris Agreement. |
[24][25] |
2018–present | Stocktaking for National Determined Contribution (NDC) Following the Paris Agreement’s framework, mandates were created for countries to submit revised and enhanced nationally determined contributions (NDCs) in 2020 and every five years after that. In addition, beginning in 2023, signatories to the agreement are enjoined in a global stocktaking of progress towards reducing global CO2 emissions every five years. |
[26] |
2019–present | Emerging New Global Energy System Many discussions revolve around emerging global energy systems because of the several issues governing energy, such as the following:
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Authors’ elaboration |
2023 | IEA World Energy Investment Alongside the issues mentioned regarding the need for a new emerging energy system, IEA’s support of the Paris Agreement’s first global stocktake has resulted in a need for a world energy investment path. The upcoming UN Climate Change Conference, COP28 UAE, is expected to be held at Dubai Expo City from 30 November to 12 December 2023. The conference represents the culmination of the first global stocktake of the Paris Agreement. |
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2023 | 1st African Climate Summit The first-ever Africa Climate Summit on 4–6 September 2023, in Kenya, focused on clean energy and industrial financing and Africa’s negotiating their stance in the global discourse ahead of COP 28 for mitigating climate change consequences, being the most affected continent. |
Performance Indices | Chemical | Thermal | Electromagnetic | Mechanical | Peak Cutting and Trough Filling |
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Life span | 1.14 years 4 | 30 years 2 | 30 years 2 | 30–60 years 1 | 2 years 3 |
Storage cycle | 365 days 1 | 7–28 days 3 | 1–6 days 4 | 7–30 days 2 | 1–6 days 4 |
Response time | Minutes 3 | Weeks to hours 4 | Days long 5 | Seconds to minutes 2 | Hundred milliseconds1 |
Storage capacity | MW–GW 1 | MW 2 | kW–MW 2 | GW 1 | kW–MW 2 |
Storage efficiency (range) | 0.3–0.8 5 | 0.5–0.9 3 | 0.8–0.98 1 | 0.7–0.85 4 | 0.6–0.95 2 |
Cost | USD (2801–7002)/kW 3 | USD (280–420)/kW 2 | - 4 or 5 | USD (140–840)/kW 1 | USD (281–420)/kW 2 |
Energy density | Very high 1 | Moderate 3 | Low 4 | Low 4 | High 2 |
Environmental Impact | |||||
Resources for generation | Existing energy resources (both fossil and RE), depending on the production method 1 | Heat 2 | Electromagnetic field 2 | Mechanical work 2 | Cutting and trough filling 2 |
Technology/ Pathway |
Storage Application | Applicable Scenarios | Merits | Demerits | Maturity of Technology |
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Chemical | Hydrogen Natural gas |
Large-scale, long-cycle energy storage | Long storage cycle High storage energy volume |
High infrastructure requirements Sluggish response Low efficiency but high cost |
Low |
Thermal | Molten salt | 7–28 days | High thermal storage volume | Limited applicable scenarios | Moderate |
Electromagnetic | Supercapacitor Superconducting |
Peak load regulation, direct use of thermal energy | Long life span Fast response |
Seconds to minutes | Low |
Mechanical | Flywheel Compressed air Hydro-pump |
Large-scale energy storage by peak cutting and trough filling | Very high technological maturity Longer life span Low cost of operation Large energy and power capacity |
High infrastructure requirements Sluggish response |
Very high |
Peak cutting and trough filling | Battery | Peak load and frequency regulation | High technological maturity High flexibility in construction/installation Fast response |
Intermittent problem of heating High infrastructure cost requirements |
High |
Category | Issues and Constraints | |
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Institution and Politics |
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Technology Systems |
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Climate Change Concerns |
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Public Opinion |
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Sector | Emerging Energy-Related Decarbonization Strategies | Merits | Demerits | Technology Maturity Level | Ref. |
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Power |
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low | [35][43][44][45][46] |
Industrial processes |
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low | [47][48] |
Transport |
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low | [49][50] |
Building | Innovative Active Cooling/Heating
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low | [51][52] |