- While the Arab region has made progress recently towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) targets, urgent efforts are still vital if these goals are to be achieved by 2030.
- The region retains an overwhelming reliance on fossil fuels, even though some Arab countries have made substantial progress on utility-scale renewable generation. Many of these world-leading projects are set to come online in 2023, too, while five Arab countries have also pledged to achieve economy-wide net-zero emissions by 2050 or 2060.2
- Yet, continued supply chain disruption, economic downturns, conflict and instability in several regional countries have continued to slow overall progress with SDG7.
- This policy brief therefore recommends the following priority actions over the next three years:
- Accelerate policy action on energy access, renewables and efficiency by setting ambitious targets with wider socioeconomic objectives to enable just, inclusive, and sustainable energy transitions.
- Improve communication and awareness so that stakeholders can better understand policy choices and changing regulations, enabling them to plan accordingly.
- Increase public investment in emerging technologies in the energy sector and promote policies which encourage private sector participation by de-risking investments.
- Boost electrification across sectors – including industry, building and transport – to improve energy intensity and accelerate the uptake of renewable energy.
- Enhance linkages between energy and agrifood systems and adopt new holistic approaches, such as integrated food-energy systems and the water-energy-food-land nexus.
- Synergize interlinkages between SDG 7 and other SDGs, particularly SDG 1 on zero hunger, SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation, SDG 9 on industry, innovation, and infrastructure, SDG 11 on sustainable cities and communities, and SDG 17 on partnerships.
Advancing SDG7 in the Arab Region
