Global Identification of Unelectrified Built-Up Areas by Remote Sensing

Access to electricity (the proportion of the population with access to electricity) is a key indica for of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7), which aims to provide affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy services for all. Accurate and timely global data on access to electricity in all countries is important for the achievement of SDG7. Current survey-based access to electricity datasets suffers from short time spans, slow updates, high acquisition costs, and a lack of location data. Accordingly, a new method for identifying the electrification status of built-up areas based on the remote sensing of nighttime light is proposed in this study. More specifically, the method overlays global built-up area data with night-time light remote sensing data to determine whether built-up areas are electrified based on a threshold night-time light value. By using our approach, electrified and unelectrified built-up areas were extracted at 500 m resolution on a global scale for the years 2014 and 2020. The acquired results show a significant reduction in an unelectrified built-up area between 2014 and 2020, from 51,301.14 km2 to 22,192.52 km2, or from 3.05% to 1.32% of the total built-up area. Compared to 2014, 117 countries or territories had improved access to electricity, and 18 increased their proportion of unelectrified built-up area by >0.1%. The identification accuracy was evaluated by using a random sample of 10,106 points. The accuracies in 2014 and 2020 were 97.29% and 98.9%, respectively, with an average of 98.1%. The outcomes of this method are in high agreement with the spatial distribution of access to electricity data reported by the World Bank. This study is the first to investigate the global electrification of built-up areas by using remote sensing. It makes an important supplement to global data on access to electricity, which can aid in the achievement of SDG7.

Which Biomass Stove(s) Capable of Reducing Household Air Pollution Are Available to the Poorest Communities Globally?

Globally, household and ambient air pollution (HAAP) leads to approximately seven million premature deaths per year. One of the main sources of household air pollution (HAP) is the traditional stove. So-called improved cookstoves (ICS) do not reduce emissions to levels that benefit health, but the poorest communities are unlikely to have access to cleaner cooking in the medium term. Therefore, ICS are being promoted as an intermediate step. This paper summarises the current evidence on the ICS available to the global poorest, utilising data from the Clean Cookstoves Catalog and systematic review evidence from the field. The cheapest stoves offer little reduction in HAP. Only one ICS, available at US$5 or less, (the canarumwe) minimally reduced pollutants based on ISO testing standards and no studies included in the systematic reviews reported tested this stove in the field. We recommend field testing all ICS as standard, and clear information on stove characteristics, sustainability, safety, emissions efficiency, in-field performance, affordability, availability in different settings, and the ability of the stove to meet community cooking needs. In addition, ICS should be promoted alongside a suite of measures, including improved ventilation and facilities to dry wood, to further reduce the pollutant levels.

Energy poverty in the COVID-19 era: Mapping global responses in light of momentum for the right to energy.

This article presents the results of the COVID Energy Map, a novel, global mapping exercise tracking emergency responses undertaken by governments, regulators, utilities and companies in the Global North and South to mitigate energy poverty by keeping energy affordable and available. The map constitutes a comprehensive open access evidence-based database, so far collating 380+ emergency measures, in 120+ countries. This paper particularly shows and discusses how the response has been developing until early 2021, highlighting various emerging longer-term concerns and strategies across Global North and South. The global COVID-19 response merits close attention in our view, as it reveals both the universal importance of household energy services access and important underlying existing narratives and policy-making questions about securing energy services access as a vital basic need, and even a 'basic right'. In fact, the paper additionally evaluates whether and how COVID-19 responses seem to fall in step with a nascent global trend of (legal) recognition of 'rights to energy' in international, regional and national policy, including for example in the EU, India, Philippines, and Colombia. We conclude that while the COVID-19 response clearly reflects broad recognition of the vital importance of affordable, continuous energy services access for basic human well-being and capabilities during the pandemic, a right to energy perspective could additionally lay bare or give shape to important concerns about some households' too minimal (insufficient) forms of modern energy access, questions of equity, and the role of the state and other actors. In terms of equity the article particularly raises issues with the manner in which support was made available only to some consumers (e.g. on-grid, off-grid, regulated, or non-regulated, post-paid or pre-paid), or only for specific fuels, and not others. In addition, the lack of attention to clean (renewable) (off-grid) energy services in COVID-19 responses is striking, and worrying, both in terms of immediate response, and green recovery from COVID-19. We argue that a right to (clean) energy perspective would help to reflect on, and inform, both shorter-term and longer-term responses to energy poverty and COVID-19, and should aid the realization of sufficiently equitable, robust, modern energy systems in line with universal UN Global Sustainable Development Goal 7. Specifically, it should also help to fulfil SDG7.1.'s promise of 'leaving no one behind'.

Analysis of Interurban Mobility in University Students: Motivation and Ecological Impact.

The management of mobility in large cities is a complex issue of great interest due to its economic, social, and environmental impact. In this work, the interurban mobility of engineering students from two campuses of the University of Seville is studied. Specifically, this work carries out an analysis of the preferences of students in terms of mobility to their study centres and determines the environmental impact of such mobility in terms of kg of CO2 per student. Three constructs can be found to describe the motivation for their choice of transport: those related to comfort and speed, those related to sustainability and price, and those related to safety. Based on the responses obtained, groups of students are established that enable the design of specific actions in accordance with each of the profiles. From the analysis of the results obtained, recommendations are made for policymakers, and a reflection is given on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on this issue.

Energy trilemma based prioritization of waste-to-energy technologies: Implications for post-COVID-19 green economic recovery in Pakistan.

As lockdown eases, economic activities resume in Pakistan. If the country continues to follow business-as-usual (BAU) then it is anticipated that carbon output could surge past pre-COVID-19 levels - that means more disasters in future. Thus, it is an unprecedented opportunity to shift from BAU and achieve carbon-neutral and nature-positive economic recovery - green economic recovery (GER). To fuel the GER, access to modern, equitable, affordable and sustainable energy is paramount. This study explores waste-to-energy (WtE) as an alternative green fuel for GER. Seven WtE technologies are prioritized based on the concept of energy trilemma - energy security, energy equity, and environmental sustainability. For the evaluation, an energy trilemma based decision support framework is developed using most prominent multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods. The fuzzy set theory is integrated with MCDM methods to minimize uncertainty in results. Sixteen experts are engaged to score each WtE technology with respect to every energy trilemma dimension and sub-dimension. Gasification technology is found to be the most feasible option for WtE generation in Pakistan whereas Torrefaction technology is least favorable. It is concluded that the need to shift towards sustainable energy is more than ever to limit the carbon emission and prevent future crisis.