The global power sector's low-carbon transition may enhance sustainable development goal achievement

The low-carbon power transition, which is key to combatting climate change, has far-reaching effects on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in terms of issues such as resource use, environmental emissions, employment, and many more. Here, we assess the potential impacts of the power transition on progress toward achieving multiple SDGs (covering 18 targets across the 17 goals) across 49 economies under nine socioeconomic and climate scenarios. We find that the low-carbon power transition under the representative concentration pathway (RCP)2.6 scenarios could lead to an approximately 11% improvement in the global SDG index score from 54.70 in 2015 to 59.89-61.33 in 2100. However, the improvement would be significantly decreased to 4.42%-7.40% and 7.55%-8.93% under the RCP6.0 and RCP4.5 scenarios, respectively. The power transition could improve the overall SDG index in most developed economies under all scenarios while undermining their resource-related SDG scores. Power transition-induced changes in international trade would improve the SDG progress of developed economies but jeopardize that of developing economies, which usually serve as resource hubs for meeting the demand for low-carbon power transition in developed economies. The low-carbon power transition could enhance global sustainable development goal (SDG) progress, but hinder that of developing economies under fossil fuel-based scenarios. Meanwhile, SDG synergies and trade-offs exist within and between economies.

Automated summary

The study assesses the potential impacts of low-carbon power transition on achieving multiple SDGs and finds that the effects vary under different scenarios. It shows that the power transition can improve the overall SDG index of developed economies but may undermine their resource-related scores. Additionally, the power transition also affects international trade and the progress of developing economies in achieving SDGs.