Sustainable Development Goal Indicators as the Foundation for a Holistic Impact Assessment of Access-to-Energy Projects

Access to affordable and clean energy is key for sustainable development. Goal 7 of the 17 UN´s Sustainable Development Goals explicitly addresses “affordable and clean energy”, however, success in most of the remaining 16 Sustainable Development Goals depends on access to energy too. Impact assessment frameworks describe the impact of access-to-energy projects, but available frameworks do not capture the entire impact of access-to-energy projects. They do not account for all energy vectors (electricity, heat, transportation) nor for the full array of effects along the 17 Sustainable Development Goals with its 247 indicators. By applying the SMART framework for indicator design the paper analyzes all Sustainable Development Goal indicators concerning implications through access to energy to finally propose a set of weighted indicators that fill the abovementioned gap. 58 indicators turn out to be relevant and they lay the foundation for a holistic impact assessment framework for access-to-energy projects