Abstract:

In 2015 the United Nations Member States established The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This document provides 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which should be implemented by all developed and developing countries in order to secure the planet's ressources for the next generations1. Among the proposed SDGs, goal no. 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all, refer directly to the energy sector. The rest of the SDGs refer indirectly to the energy sector, such as e.g. goal no. 12 in terms of rationalizing inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption by removing market distortions or goal no. 9 in terms of promoting sustainable industrialization by providing modern and efficient energy technologies with lower CO2 emissions2. The energy sector is one the most important ones with a great impact on the economic growth, social well-being as well as climate change. The latter is influenced mainly by the usage of fossil fuels in energy generation and the lack of efficiency in generation, transmission and consumption. That is why The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and The Paris Agreement on Climate Change point out that: "ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all will open a new world of opportunities for billions of people through new economic opportunities and jobs, empowered women, children and youth, better education and health, more sustainable, equitable and inclusive communities, and greater protections from, and resilience to, climate change"3.