A personal look at SDG7 through the eyes of SEforALL colleagues
Editor's pick: Five actions to end cooking poverty
Cooking poverty remains one of the largest unsolved public health, climate, and equality crises humans have ever experienced. It kills over four million people annually and affects 3.83 billion people in 71 countries. [1] While the costs of eradication are high, costs of inaction – in terms of health, gender equity, and climate impacts – are even higher. Estimates of the social and environmental cost of this burden reach USD 2.4 trillion per year. [2] Alleviation of cooking poverty received only USD 131 million in 2018 [3], while the estimated cost for achieving improved cooking for all by 2030 is roughly USD 10 billion annually for the next 10 years. [4] In order to reach modern cooking, the price tag is USD 150 billion yearly.
Cooking poverty: Using wood, charcoal, dung or other solid fuels on three-stone fires or low-quality stoves in poorly ventilated conditions; includes individuals in Tiers 0-3 of the five-tier Multi-Tier Framework.
Achieving “affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern” cooking for all is essential to addressing the greater issue of energy poverty and meeting Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) in addition to reaching adjacent SDGs aimed at prosperity, gender equity, health, and climate. [5] The cooking poverty sector – a multitude of development organizations, governments, NGOs, and small and medium enterprises – is not on track to reach 2030 Sustainable Development targets. At present the industry’s current emphasis on “success” creates the appearance of progress. That needs to change when, in fact, neither the funding nor the human and institutional infrastructure exist at scale to eradicate cooking poverty in the foreseeable future.
Continuing on the current path will lead to the failure to eradicate cooking poverty, the related failure of SDG7 and the resulting failure of other sustainable development goals.
We believe another path exists. The cooking poverty sector has the opportunity to realign with the electricity access sector’s ecosystem and value chain. Within electrification efforts, an enormous base of experience is available for rapid dissemination; there is accessible infrastructure (e.g., physical, institutional, human resources, investment platforms, etc.) to expedite deployment of necessary resources and sufficient capital to be utilized if certain actions are taken:
Action 1 – rebrand and reframe the issue, using the term “cooking poverty” rather than “clean cooking” or similar terms. As clean or modern cooking services today represent only a fraction of the solution to cooking poverty, the name of the sector should reflect both the unsolved problem and the diversity of solutions to this complex issue (examples include public health, gender empowerment, enterprise development). While modern cooking is the end-goal in eradicating cooking poverty, harm reduction, incrementalism and “leapfrogging” to modern where possible are the means, and each needs attention. Only focusing on modern cooking due to its mortality reduction benefits shortchanges the end-user, stalls investment, and forces communities in need to wait for a leapfrog solution (electrification, high-end fuels) to modern cooking.
Action 2 – execute a moonshot effort to consolidate all presently available knowledge and information into a multipurpose and easy-to access Playbook, which must be accessible to new entrants and existing actors across the public and private sectors as well as civil society. Initiatives within the sector are currently ad hoc, knowledge and information sharing across entities is inconsistent, and best practices are hard to find and build upon. A cooking poverty sector strategy that empowers information sharing and collaboration on industry knowledge and expertise can bridge this gap and accelerate new entrants.
Action 3 – address SDG 7.1.1 and 7.1.2 together rather than in separate silos. Even if the tactical issues across the cooking sector (branding, collaboration, information sharing) are solved, and financial investment somehow reached the scale needed to reach SDG7 in the next nine years, the sector lacks the capacity to support solutions needed for 3.8 billion people - more than half the world’s population - that cook with solid fuels. Merging electrification and cooking efforts will require strong leadership, planning, and incentives.
Action 4 – use these reconstructed energy access initiatives to tap unprecedented amounts of climate finance. There is significant opportunity for a streamlined approach to utilizing carbon markets to finance small businesses and achieve improvements in energy, health, climate, and gender equality goals.
Action 5 – organize a donor/investor/government Compact around the principle of “complete and balanced support for all phases of the transition from cooking poverty to modern cooking.” This should align the largely ad hoc approach to fundraising, technical assistance, and policy creation (though this can still be specialized by technology or fuel).
1. ESMAP.2020. The State of Access to Modern Energy Cooking Services (English). Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/937141600195758792/The-State-of-Access-to-Modern-Energy-Cooking-Services 2. Ibid. 3. “Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2020.” SEforALL, November 19, 2020. https://www.seforall.org/publications/energizing-finance-understanding-the-landscape-2020. 4. Ibid. 5. “Goal 7 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs.” United Nations. United Nations. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal7.
Editor's pick: From jobs to gender equality – why it’s vital we back energy access skills
Technicians are trained in five solar academies across the country, established by the KYA-Energy Group. The company’s CEO Ketowoglo Yao Azoumah predicts that solar skills could soon become a handy export business for Togo – with technicians and local companies finding employment in neighbouring countries across West Africa.
As women face barriers to entering science, engineering and technology sectors, the agency ensured that half of the engineers delivering the work are women.
When it comes to green skills, government action essential – but politicians must work in partnership with forward thinking enterprises and NGOs, that ensure training specifically tackles social inequality. Here are again, there are shining lights to show us the way forward, bringing energy access and workplace opportunities for women.
Kenya’s Burn Manufacturing produces affordable cookstoves that slash carbon emissions and protect the health of families that use them. 60 percent of their employees are female, and have often broken social barriers to train in jobs normally the preserve of men. This dynamic workforce has pushed the company to become a market leader – just a few weeks ago, Burn sold their millionth stove.
Training for green jobs can also spread powerful digital skills. Frontier Markets’ Solar Sahelis are rural women entrepreneurs selling clean energy goods and other products in their communities. An e-commerce app is now central to the organisation’s business model, bringing the sahelis new tech skills to complement their formidable community knowledge and sales abilities.
Huge barriers remain
While these success stories are worth celebrating, they are the exception rather than the rule. In recent years the International Renewable Energy Agency has identified a global need for better public-private partnerships, and action to remedy huge inequalities in access to training and employment among low-income communities and other marginalised groups, especially women. The organisation also calls for national green skills policies, efforts to map training needs, and new channels to connect employers with potential employees.
These concerns have spurred the launch of the 2021 Ashden Award for Energy Access Skills. We are on the hunt for outstanding examples of inclusive and barrier-breaking skills development. The winner will receive a £20,000 grant, while all finalists are given marketing and business support, and access to Ashden’s network of funders, investors and expert partners. Ashden will also fund a powerful promotional film about the winner’s work. Entry is free, and applications close on 17 March 2021.
This week jobs and training are on the agenda at the timely Sustainable Energy for All Youth Summit. Green skills are relevant to every age group, but of particular concern for young people, who have done so much for all of us by raising their voices in support of climate action. Now we can support them by ensuring energy access skills are available to all, and delivered as powerfully as possible.
Editor's pick: Decarbonizing cities – how to harmonize buildings, mobility and infrastructure
Why is it so important to decarbonize cities? And how can we do it?
The first question is easy to answer: The cities in which more than half of us live account for nearly two-thirds of the CO2 emissions that lie at the root of our planet’s looming climate crisis. Skyscrapers in megalopolises, shopping malls, SUVs in the streets, air conditioners in a growing number of places throughout the globe – all consume a vast amount of high CO2-content energy.
The answer to the second question is to take an integrated approach: leveraging clean electrification and digital technology to harmonize urban energy systems, while also thinking beyond individual projects to consider their impact within the surrounding communities and the built environment.
In fact, urban energy, transport and building infrastructures are gradually becoming greener: There are more electric vehicles on city streets, better water treatment and recycling schemes, and more solar panels on rooftops around the globe. According to International Energy Agency estimates, renewables like solar and wind are set to become the largest source of electricity generation worldwide by 2025, supplying one-third of the world’s electricity and ending coal’s decades-long dominance of the global power mix.
All this is, of course, welcome.
But with climate change accelerating, we need more comprehensive decarbonization actions on three fronts. First, we need even more energy to come from renewable sources. Second, we need more cars, heating and other activity to be powered by clean electricity. Third, we need everything from factories, to office buildings, homes, transport systems and consumer devices to become more energy-efficient.
This third lever might not as headline-grabbing as the rise of solar panels or electric vehicles. But it is a big piece of the decarbonization puzzle, with an even larger potential enabled by digital technologies.
Consider, for example, the technologies that make buildings more energy-efficient, by automatically adapting the amount of cooling, heating or lighting to occupancy levels at any given moment. Or digital tools that allow the operators of a manufacturing site in Sweden or a public utility in India to run their operations or distribution systems more efficiently and even remotely, rather than in person (a feature that has proved critical in these times of social distancing and lockdowns).
Imagine how much more we could achieve if we digitally integrate ultra-efficient buildings, public services – e.g. transport or lighting – and electric vehicle charging stations into a wider, highly efficient urban system, delivering better quality services for citizens and accompanying benefits such as local job creation, health, and well-being. Integration and interaction between assets are the key to disrupt the traditional equation of energy and efficiency in cities. An EV battery can store power not only for just one car, but, while a car is not in use, also for the surrounding community thanks to smart-charging infrastructures. Excess power generated by an office building’s or warehouse’s rooftop solar panels might be used to help power the wider neighbourhood.
The technologies, digital tools and data analytics capabilities to enable this efficient urban system already exist, as do concrete examples of such an integrated approach. Therefore, integration and collaboration of systems and stakeholders are the fundamental drivers to accelerate and scale the transition in cities.
Integration of energy, buildings and mobility requires cross-cutting industry collaboration, ranging from utilities and real estate, to technology companies and financial institutions. City- and state-level administration can enable and facilitate such collaboration through public-private cooperation. The public sector can drive on governance, policy and licensing, while the private sector provides agility, technology and resources. This cooperation can share and balance risks and liability between stakeholders for mutual gains and value creation for the broader community.
All of this comes against a backdrop of great urgency. Epidemics, climate and economic pain have all created unique challenges in 2020. But combating climate change must remain top of mind. Cities lie at the heart of this fight and have now the chance to build back better. We have joined the World Economic Forum in the effort to promote dialogue and mobilize action together with a group of global leaders. As co-chairs of the Net Zero Carbon Cities initiative, our ambition is to accelerate a sustainable transition in cities, supporting mayors in creating value for their communities. It is up to all of us to ensure we become part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
