As an inherent factor of growth, energy is strongly interrelated with development, and access to energy is central to improved social and economic well-being. While enhancing the productivity of income-generating activities, access to energy eventually contributes to eradication of poverty and diversification of income sources.

Today, access to affordable and sustained energy services has a multiplier effect on both economic and social growth. As an inherent factor of growth, energy is strongly interrelated with development, and access to energy is central to improved social and economic well-being. While enhancing the productivity of income-generating activities, access to energy eventually contributes to eradication of poverty and diversification of income sources. However, currently, one billion people still don’t have reliable access to electricity.

Considering that the ecosystem services are being degraded over the past fifty years, and shifting ecosystems have been negatively affecting the sustainability of economic development, reversing the degradation of ecosystems in requires further use of renewables such as hydropower, wind, solar and biogas. However, the scale of renewable energy deployment remains low.

Thus, financial incentives are required to assist the private sector to pioneer renewable energy projects due to high upfront investment costs. Also, enhancing the data management of the renewable energy industry and adopting relevant regulations are required to build the trust of the private sector.

The governments should provide financial incentives to promote renewable energy production, as the vast potential has been underutilized in many countries. To accelerate the role of renewables, countries should set up a mechanism for capacity building, technical transfer, and the best practices. 

Energy Transition

The energy transition for energy supply, which is critical for an environmentally friendly and secure future, requires moving away from fossil fuels towards renewables along with improved energy efficiency. An effective energy transition fosters economic growth, affordability and access to energy.

With the improving technologies of wind power and photovoltaics, wind and solar energy have been getting cheaper and constituting the most important forms of renewables.

Although there are positive signs of progress towards energy transition, climate change still poses significant risks. The collective efforts towards energy transition are insufficient and the world is far from being on track to achieve the Paris climate goals.

Energy Efficiency & Energy Conservation

Energy efficiency is not energy conservation. Energy efficiency is using less energy to provide the same service”, such as replacing an incandescent lamp with a compact fluorescent lamp (which uses less energy to produce the same amount of light). Thus, energy efficiency mainly requires changing the operation of electricity driven devices to meet the desired energy services with less electricity input. 

On the other hand,  energy conservation is reducing or going without a service to save energy, such as turning off a light when not in use. Energy conservation is essentially reducing the need for energy services.

Both efficiency and conservation can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But, the role of energy efficiency in meeting s growing demand for energy services is substantial. Through technical improvements and increasing deployment of devices in all parts of the economy, most of the growth in energy services has been met by more efficient devices.

Supporting Deployment of Electric Vehicles (EVs)

Electric vehicle owners or prospective buyers usually suffer from “range anxiety”, and they are mainly concerned about running out of charge or how far they can go on a single charge.

From a technical standpoint, electric vehicle manufacturers focus on improving the overall performance of these vehicles, in particular,  reducing the battery cost, increasing the vehicle range,  making batteries safer, and reducing charge times.  All of these innovations help vehicle owners reduce range anxiety and increase the demand for EVs.

Also, deploying more charging stations, providing EV purchase subsidies, and reducing taxes for electric vehicles can help access large numbers of new potential customers.

Growing Scarcity of Fresh Water and Global Risk of Water Crisis  

Unlike other substances, water is irreplaceable and cannot be substituted. Since the survival of species and life highly dependent on water, it’s high time we faced with an unavoidable reality that water is a finite resource. All participants should collaborate to devise sustainable solutions to our common problem of water scarcity.

The world is now reaching its ecological limits. The provision of fresh water supply constitutes one of the biggest challenges especially for densely populated areas. In an effort to lessen the impacts of shrinking water resources, the stakeholders should create more efficient water resource management strategies to deal with growing risk of water scarcity.

As highlighted in the World Economic Forum, the growing scarcity of fresh water constitutes the fourth greatest global risk, following weapons of mass destruction, impacts of climate change, and extreme weather events. Today, the growing scarcity of water leads to various diseases, higher child mortality, and social instabilities, and affects the global economy. Thus, it is essential to seek ways to explore strategies for more sustainable management of water resources.

An inclusive water management strategy should include addressing interrelated challenges: reducing inefficient water use, wastewater disposal and reuse,  renovating water pipe infrastructure, controlling urban expansion, tackling environmental deterioration and deforestation, and obtaining greater equity in distribution for poor areas. 

It is required to reduce inefficient water use and monitor the water footprint in all steps of the supply chain in order to gain a better understanding of inefficiencies. In order to tackle inefficient water use in households, instead of charging a flat fee regardless of how much water is used, governments should apply financial incentive to save water through introducing increased pricing and billing of water as part of water management plan.

Producing strategies for wastewater disposal and reuse is equally important. Wastewater of large cities can be treated and reused such as for agricultural purposes.

Additionally, the aging distribution systems of water leads to leaks, contributes very poor quality of the water and causes to high rates of infectious illness. Therefore, the water supply and sewer infrastructure must be renovated with more flexible and durable pipes with the aim of improving the quality of water supplied for human consumption, avoiding potential diseases and seasonal flooding. Besides, this strategy will be more effective in addressing the social, environmental and economic issues through reducing the waste of water.

Availability of water resources for human consumption competes with industrial needs for water supplies. However, many municipalities lack not only the financial capacity to implement plans, but the management and planning capacity to adequately manage water resources and address the different needs of the users. Therefore, due to limited financial resources, we have to tackle the question of how to reconcile the competing demands.

Also, considering the increasing population of urban areas, and governments policies which favored urban over rural development, it is critical to further improve peoples’ quality of life in rural areas through providing more potable water, sewerage, health, education and employment opportunities. This strategy will help us control urban expansion, and accordingly lessen water deficit as a result of increased demand from consumers and industry.

Keeping in mind the rapid deforestation and environmental deterioration continue to increase with serious depletion of natural resources, storm water management practices should be improved to save water and handle the implications of climate, soils and rainfalls. In this sense, tackling the problem of deforestation and environmental deterioration in order to achieve a sustainable and balanced use of the water resources is critical.

Another option is to encourage pollution prevention approaches, because prevention practices are essential for preserving wetlands, ground water sources and other critical ecosystems. If successfully implemented, pollution prevention can reduce environmental damages and reduces both financial costs (waste management and cleanup) and environmental costs (health problems and environmental damage). Yet, it requires additional financial resources. And, most of the municipalities cannot afford to finance these projects alone. This complicates an already complex issue, and makes it extremely difficult for officials to provide required services. So, it is required to finance the projects aiming to achieve an adequate service level and greater equity in distribution for poor areas with little safe access to potable water. Limited financial resources should be used to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation, in particular, for poor people.