Synerging Sustainable Development Goals-can clean energy (green) deliver UN-SDG geared towards socio-economic-environment objectives in emerging BRICS?

Abstract

The BRICS nations are often seen as being at the vanguard of the push to implement sustainable energy technologies, even at the household scale, as part of the transition to sustainable societies. Given that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are interconnected and that achieving one is a good springboard for achieving others, we see the SDGs as having three dimensions: socio-economic-environmental sustainability. However, energy is central to attaining these tenets in the UN-SDG. Therefore, this work aims to use three germane methods-feasible generalized least square (FGLS), fixed effects model, and quantile regression-to discover empirical evidence to back up these statements. When different econometric estimate methods were used, these findings remained reliable. The research also showed that clean energy is essential when determining strategies to achieve environmental sustainability, human development, and foster green economic growth. Thus, investments in green resources and technological innovation promote the country's transition to sustainable development. They also show a substantial beneficial influence of clean and green energy and technology on supporting the main tenet of UN-SDG in BRICS across most quantiles. As a result of these major analytical findings, some relevant policies are proposed to enable the BRICS countries to achieve some of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that are closely related to undergoing green energy transition (SDG-7) and achieving environmental sustainability (SDG-13) through the channel of innovation (SDG-9). The study consequently suggests that to combat climate change, promote green economic growth, and assure human development, which will increase the likelihood of the UN-SDGs, investment in clean energy should be given top priority on the BRICS agenda.

Keywords: Clean energy and technology; Economic growth; Environmental sustainability; Human development; UN-SDG.