This is a technical policy brief for the HLPF on Sustainable Development Goal 15 prepared by the Forest Peoples Programme and produced by the Indigenous Peoples Major Group for Sustainable Development.

This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. 

The growing importance of the renewable energy sector

The renewable energy sector is experiencing prominent and rapid expansion globally, forming a formidable new front for infrastructure and economic development. International consensus on the need to tackle climate change and development challenges around energy production, consumption and access make the industry a unique focal point for expansion, spurred by international policy and public investment. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) comprise a major international development process contributing to this dynamic. Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) aims to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”. The Global Tracking Framework of the World Bank (2017a) gives the dimensions of sustainable energy as being: access to electricity; access to clean cooking; energy efficiency; and renewable energy. The SDGs refer to and are consistent with the Paris Agreement on climate change, another major global policy initiative which has an explicit focus on reducing global carbon emissions from the energy sector through a transition to renewable energy production.

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A briefing paper by the Indigenous Peoples Major Group, with contributions from the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

Introduction: Access I to energy for all - at what price?

According to the OECD and the IEA 14% of the world’s population currently has no access to electricity. 84% of these people live in rural areas. Indigenous peoples comprise 15% of the world’s extreme poor, while representing only 5% of the global population – and make up a staggering one third of the world’s 900 million extremely poor rural people (IFAD 2018). Indigenous peoples are therefore a critical demographic that needs to be put at the centre of the global dialogue on energy if SDG 7 on ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all is to be achieved.

Despite this fact, indigenous peoples suffer invisibility when it comes to our understanding of energy access. There is little consistent and comparable disaggregated data available to provide a clear global picture of indigenous peoples’ access to energy in contrast to non-indigenous populations. Even major reports from key initiatives aligned with SDG 7 [1] either don’t mention, or only superficially refer to, indigenous peoples and fail to examine their unique challenges as a distinct group with regards to energy access.

At the same time, indigenous territories host big renewable energy projects and other “clean energy” such as large hydro dams, wind mill farms and geothermal plants without meaningful consultations with and consent by indigenous peoples who have prior rights to their lands and resources. These projects have resulted in conflicts, displacements, destruction of livelihoods, and have violated indigenous peoples’ rights and undermined their self-determined development. Furthermore, often the main objectives of many of these projects are to supply energy for industrial activity, urban areas and other infrastructure projects for profit, rather than to provide energy for indigenous peoples and marginalised communities.

Related to SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy