Towards an Integrated Framework for SDGs: Ultimate and Enabling Goals for the Case of Energy

Abstract

Discussions on how to define, design, and implement sustainable development goals (SDG) have taken center stage in the United Nations since the Rio+20 summit. Energy is one of the issues that enjoyed consensus, before and after Rio, as an important area for SDGs to address. Many proposals have been put forward on how SDGs should be formulated and what areas they should cover, but there have been few attempts to develop a generic integrated framework within which diverse areas can be accommodated and treated in a coherent way. The purpose of this paper is to develop such a framework for SDGs and to demonstrate its application by elaborating specific target areas for the energy sector. Based on a review and integration of global debates around SDG and energy, the framework puts human wellbeing at the center of the agenda, with the supporting resource base and global public goods forming additional tiers. A complementary set of enabling goals is suggested with four layers: capacity & knowledge, governance & institutions, public policy, and investment & finance. An energy SDG is elaborated to illustrate the application of the framework. The illustrative SDG architecture for energy includes eight target areas: basic energy access, energy for economic development, sufficiency, renewable supply, efficiency, infrastructure, greenhouse gas emissions and security. These target areas are relevant for energy for all countries, but depending on national circumstances such as levels of development, the relative emphasis will be different between countries, and over time.

Techno-economic demand projections and scenarios for the Bolivian energy system

“…The literature is rich in forecasting methods, Sughanti et al, classified them in 11 broad 1 Economic and Social Development Plan (PDES in Spanish acronym) 2 Long-range Energy Alternative Planning software categories with 364 applied energy examples, ranging from classic model formulations including accounting, top-down, bottom-up (end-use) and econometric approaches, to soft computing techniques widely used in energy demand forecasting such as artificial/expert systems, genetic algorithms, particle swarm optimization and other hybrid models [28].…”

“…For this purpose, in 2015 several energy intensive projects were identified in the investment portfolio, PDES 1 , to be implemented by 2025 [19]. However, Bolivia still lacks of energy efficient standards in products and emissions cap regulations.…”

“…Although energy itself does not ensure human well-being, having access to energy has been identified as essential to fulfilling many social, economic and environment needs of the Sustainable Development Goals, (SDGs) [1] [2]. In developing economies, as standards of living rise with economic development, the energy consumption patterns tends to increase, encouraging the intensification of energy use for industrial and productive activities [3].…”

Integrating Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Goal Structure, Target Areas and Means of Implementation

“…The question is how these inter-linkages and levers of change could be captured in the post-2015 development agenda, making it a universally relevant agenda. To address this question and to further reflect on the goal setting process regarding biodiversity and ecosystems, we use a three-tiered framework for designing SDGs proposed by Nilsson et al [14] to identify target areas and means of implementation within the overall goals.…”

“…The research presented here adds to their analysis by including a larger number of existing proposals and by using a quantitative pathways analysis [13] and a framework proposed by Nilsson, et al [14] to identify and structure specific target areas and means of implementation with respect to food and agriculture in relation to biodiversity and ecosystem services.…”