Africa and the 2030 Sustainable Energy Goal: A Focus on Access to Renewables and Clean Fuels for Cooking

Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) focuses on ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy by 2030. This chapter uses twin indicators for trend analysis and to compute a baseline composite index. The indicators are (1) the proportion of population with primary reliance on clean fuels and technology and (2) the share of renewable energy in the total final energy consumption. Data is drawn from the World Development Indicators. The findings are that many African countries are still lagging behind, with a high chance that meeting the selected 2030 targets is far-fetched. In fact, there is a declining trend in access to renewable energy, with slow growth towards access to clean fuels and technology. This is supported by opposing voices, particularly from labour unions favouring the protection of jobs sustained by the dirty sources of energy, a posture pitched against the voices worried by the ever-changing climate and associated weather extremes like floods, droughts and hailstorms. The chapter recommends, among other issues, scaling up investments in clean fuels and related technologies as well as the deployment of renewable energy through a just transition to low-carbon and greener economies.