SDG 7.4 - Infrastructure and technology

By 2030, enhance international cooperation to facilitate access to clean energy research and technology, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and advanced and cleaner fossil-fuel technology, and promote investment in energy infrastructure and clean energy technology.

Global energy demand is being driven by population growth and increased urbanization. Technological advances can help us unlock capacity for cleaner, more affordable and sustainable energy. We have seen improvements in the consumer market, with electric vehicles, energy-efficient building design, rechargeable batteries and extended-life light-bulbs. Technology can also help us with wider advances in systems for more efficient and equitable energy access. For example, improved geospatial mapping can help us better understand where off-grid consumers are, and renewable energy resource mapping can point us to the best locations for solar and wind generation. Technology offers communities the opportunity to leverage energy access for productive economic use. But we must constantly keep pace with and harness technological change to maximize these and other benefits in meeting our energy needs.