‘Ensure Access to Affordable, Reliable, Sustainable and Modern Energy for All’
Seatzu Francesco, Akestoridi Katerina
Abstract
Abstract The chapter discusses the role of energy in achieving developmental objectives. Navigating the preparatory proceedings that led to the adoption of SDG 7, the authors demonstrate energy’s instrumentality for the realization of human development in an intra- and intergenerational context while signalling the issues that became a point of contestation among country delegates and other stakeholders in the deliberations of the Open Working Group. Against this background, core aspects of the so-called Energy trilemma, namely accessibility, affordability, and sustainability, are analysed by reference to SDG 7’s individual targets. In drawing the nexus between energy, society, and the environment, the authors exercise a critique of the goal’s conceptualization and implementation drawing arguments from international law, in particular energy and human rights law, ethics, and country policies aiming to give effect to the goal’s prescripts.