Page 129 - Biofuels for a More Sustainable Future

Life cycle sustainability assessment in the energy sector 117

8. Promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full
and productive employment and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable
industrialization, and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and
sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources
for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems,
sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse
land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development,
provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable, and
inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global
Partnership for Sustainable Development.

Based on the SDGs we can begin to appreciate the breadth of issues that are
relevant to sustainability and the ways in which the energy sector might
interact with them. For instance, Goal 7 clearly states that affordable and sus-
tainable energy provisions are, in themselves, desirable goals. However, it is
also clear that energy is a crucial enabler of several other goals: it is the single
greatest contributor to climate change (Goal 13), accounting for over a third
of global GHG emissions (IPCC, 2014), it is essential in the provision of
clean water and sanitation (Goal 6), it often involves mining and other causes
of land use change (Goal 15), and it is a major global provider of skilled
employment (Goal 8) with over 10 million people working directly in
the renewables subsector alone (IRENA, 2018).
Accounting for the sustainability impacts of energy systems requires rig-
orous analysis of the entire life cycle, as will be explored further in the fol-
lowing sections.

1.2 Energy, biofuels, and their relevance to sustainable
development

Despite increasing focus on energy efficiency and the deployment of non-
fossil energy sources, the world’s overall energy production has continued to
climb, only recently showing any tendency toward a reduction in the rate of