The UN Sustainable Development Goals act as an anchor point in defining the actions that are taken around the world, for a cleaner, better and safer earth. These UN goals are focused on all aspects under each category ranging from Eradicating Poverty (SDG 1) in all forms to Quality education (SDG 4) to the importance of Partnerships (SDG 17) that will play an important role for our future generations. The SDGs are complementary and interlinked to each other and with progress ofone SDG, multiple goals can be achieved simultaneously.

The message is clear and the definition for each goal has been set with parameters specified on how each goal is to be achieved. Each of the 17 SDGs entails a set of actions that would help achieve these goals.

But what is missing at times is the Holistic progress towards each SDG Goal especially when it comes to taking action i.e. not all aspects that were originally covered under the spectrum of the SDG get equal weightage or focus.

One such goal is SDG 7 which in the verbatim UN says to “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”. A goal that talks about clean energy and adoption of clean fuel, has been largely focussing on achieving just energy access in electricity but little work has been towards clean cooking. Access to energy under this goal is usually considered by organizations to be electricity (alone) which needs to be clean, which needs to be sustainable and needs to be properly sourced. We have been collectively able to tackle one particular aspect of this goal, i.e. clean electricity for consumption through renewable resources.

A report by IRENA shows that the number of people with access to electricity has decreased from 1.2 billion in 2010 to 759 million in 2019. There has been a considerable impact on the adoption of clean electricity and with now less than 800 million people in the world without access to electricity, there is enough momentum and activities that would soon reduce this number to less than 500 million.

This is a substantial decrease when you compare it to other parameters, such as access to clean cooking, which has decreased from 3 Billion in 2010 to 2.7 Billion in 2019. Looking at these numbers, one can tell, that although we are working towards access to electricity (one form of energy), we’ve not focused enough on the other aspects of clean sources of energy and its applications for rural communities.

Add to that, the change in usage of renewable resources for energy has just increased to 17.1% in 2018 from a 16.4% back in 2010. This 0.7% increase is not enough for us to be able to tackle climate change.

What it means is that now is the time to focus more on the other elements under SDG 7 and work towards holistic achievement of this goal. Clean cooking is one of those elements which can be the anchor to bring change and help tackle climate change as well. It’s only when any community adopts clean energy (electricity from renewable sources) and clean cooking that they can actually achieve SDG7.

Efforts like developing carbon-neutral destinations such as the Daribokgre, Meghalaya in India and Bucuti & Tara Resorts in Aruba are setting examples of how we can leverage tourism (Livelihood) and work in the correct direction to bring clean energy in all aspects.

A tourism hotspot in the region, Daribokgre in Meghalaya is setting up an example on the local level of how the community can come together and adopt clean energy, for now, and for future generations as well. The village of Daribokgre, Meghalaya, India is all solar powered with it’s each house has its own Solar grids that cater to its energy requirement. The community generates its own electricity and consumes it. This makes them sustainable in the long run and since it’s renewable energy, it ensures that they never run out of it. This also ensures that the community has room for further development once they have access to the basic facilities. On the other end, the community is also ensuring that instead of using the traditional method of cooking i.e. traditional mud cookstoves (Chulhas), they switch over to using improvised cookstoves, which enables them to bring down their firewood consumption significantly. This helps with slowing down the deforestation rate in the region, directly tackling climate change( SDG 13), and also easing the pressure on the family members to collect firewood. The community is also focused on investing further in solar energy for the commonplaces of the village, such as the church, the community center, the school, etc.

This serves as a good case study for understanding how elaborative is SDG 7 and what all needs to be done to achieve SDG 7 in its true sense which is also about clean cooking.

If we can start with even a single goal and take it from there, that should be enough. Because these goals have been defined in a way that while you try to achieve one goal, many others are achieved along the way. SDG 7 is one such goal. One action taken under SDG 7 enables you to fulfil SDG 3- Good Health and Well-Being, SDG 9- Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, SDG 11- Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 12-Responsible Consumption and Production, and SDG 13- Climate Action. This is one step, in the right direction makes a power impact overall

Such examples need to be closely followed and replicated in geo-sensitive zones as well along with the major cities/towns to ensure that no one is left behind and we all progress forward learning from each other.