IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v307y2022ics0306261921014446.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A novel Sustainable Development Goal 7 composite index as the paradigm for energy sustainability assessment: A case study from Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Madurai Elavarasan, Rajvikram
  • Pugazhendhi, Rishi
  • Irfan, Muhammad
  • Mihet-Popa, Lucian
  • Campana, Pietro Elia
  • Khan, Irfan Ahmad

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goal 7 endeavors to ameliorate the energy system towards sustainability. Monitoring the country’s progress to the goal will be of utmost for the government to take suitable actions and thus, constructing a performance monitoring index for Sustainable Development Goal 7 would tune the pace of implementation. This study aims to develop a novel Sustainable Development Goal 7 or Energy Sustainability Composite Index to assess the energy sustainability performance. Since Europe tends to have diverged efforts towards energy sustainability, assessing them with the proposed Sustainable Development Goal 7 composite index would provide the evidence needed for effective sustainable development strategies. By describing Europe, the authors signify 40 European countries and the selection of country depends on the availability of all the data that are required for the energy sustainability assessment. In this study, the analyzed energy sustainability aspects include clean energy conversion, energy security, energy accessibility, energy intensity and carbon intensity. The results show that Iceland, Norway, and Sweden tops in energy sustainability aspects with scores of 0.7313, 0.6967, and 0.6313 (on a scale of 0 to 1), respectively. The proposed Sustainable Development Goal 7 composite index is also compared with the actual Sustainable Development Goal 7 index, which comprises the indicators defined by the United Nations. The prime difference between the proposed Sustainable Development Goal 7 composite index and the actual Sustainable Development Goal 7 index resides in the consideration of energy security and carbon intensity indicators and in the framework designed to evaluate the clean energy prevalence. The evaluated actual Sustainable Development Goal 7 index scores of Germany and France are 0.4915 and 0.4656, respectively. On comparing with the proposed Sustainable Development Goal 7 composite index scores, the scores decreased by 20.9% for Germany and increased by 7.2% for France. The robustness of the proposed composite index relies on reducing the effect of outliers by using a modified min–max methodology, namely Aggregated Normalization based on Maximum and Minimum Outliers for normalization and the subsequent weightage allocation criteria utilized in Analytic Hierarchy Process methodology. Sensitivity analyses highlighted that the clean energy indicator is the most influencing indicator for the designed composite index. Nevertheless, uncertainty analysis indicates that the weightage scenario has a more prominent influence than various normalization and aggregation methods.

Suggested Citation

  • Madurai Elavarasan, Rajvikram & Pugazhendhi, Rishi & Irfan, Muhammad & Mihet-Popa, Lucian & Campana, Pietro Elia & Khan, Irfan Ahmad, 2022. "A novel Sustainable Development Goal 7 composite index as the paradigm for energy sustainability assessment: A case study from Europe," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:307:y:2022:i:c:s0306261921014446
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.118173
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261921014446
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.118173?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Johansson, Bengt, 2013. "Security aspects of future renewable energy systems–A short overview," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 598-605.
    2. Madurai Elavarasan, Rajvikram & Pugazhendhi, Rishi & Jamal, Taskin & Dyduch, Joanna & Arif, M.T. & Manoj Kumar, Nallapaneni & Shafiullah, GM & Chopra, Shauhrat S. & Nadarajah, Mithulananthan, 2021. "Envisioning the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the lens of energy sustainability (SDG 7) in the post-COVID-19 world," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    3. Neelawela, U.D. & Selvanathan, E.A. & Wagner, L.D., 2019. "Global measure of electricity security: A composite index approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 433-453.
    4. Söderbergh, Bengt & Jakobsson, Kristofer & Aleklett, Kjell, 2010. "European energy security: An analysis of future Russian natural gas production and exports," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 7827-7843, December.
    5. ., 2020. "The growth of the English rule of law," Chapters, in: The Rule of Law, Economic Development, and Corporate Governance, chapter 2, pages 16-45, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Neves Almeida, Thiago Alexandre das & García-Sánchez, Isabel-María, 2016. "A comparative analysis between composite indexes of environmental performance: An analysis on the CIEP and EPI," Environmental Science & Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 59-74.
    7. Pavlović, Darko & Banovac, Eraldo & Vištica, Nikola, 2018. "Defining a composite index for measuring natural gas supply security - The Croatian gas market case," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 30-38.
    8. Rogge, Nicky, 2012. "Undesirable specialization in the construction of composite policy indicators: The Environmental Performance Index," Working Papers 2012/08, Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel, Faculteit Economie en Management.
    9. Caccavale, Oscar Maria & Giuffrida, Valerio, 2020. "The Proteus composite index: Towards a better metric for global food security," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    10. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Cooper, Christopher & Parenteau, Patrick, 2011. "From a hard place to a rock: Questioning the energy security of a coal-based economy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(8), pages 4664-4670, August.
    11. Ang, B.W. & Goh, Tian, 2018. "Bridging the gap between energy-to-GDP ratio and composite energy intensity index," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 105-112.
    12. Höfer, Tim & Sunak, Yasin & Siddique, Hafiz & Madlener, Reinhard, 2016. "Wind farm siting using a spatial Analytic Hierarchy Process approach: A case study of the Städteregion Aachen," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 222-243.
    13. Antony Froggatt, 2013. "The climate and energy security implications of coal demand and supply in Asia and Europe," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 285-303, September.
    14. Kynčlová, Petra & Upadhyaya, Shyam & Nice, Thomas, 2020. "Composite index as a measure on achieving Sustainable Development Goal 9 (SDG-9) industry-related targets: The SDG-9 index," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    15. Leonardo S. Alaimo & Filomena Maggino, 2020. "Sustainable Development Goals Indicators at Territorial Level: Conceptual and Methodological Issues—The Italian Perspective," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 147(2), pages 383-419, January.
    16. Iddrisu, Insah & Bhattacharyya, Subhes C., 2015. "Sustainable Energy Development Index: A multi-dimensional indicator for measuring sustainable energy development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 513-530.
    17. Bulut, Hasan, 2020. "The construction of a composite index for general satisfaction in Turkey and the investigation of its determinants," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    18. Heun, Matthew Kuperus & Brockway, Paul E., 2019. "Meeting 2030 primary energy and economic growth goals: Mission impossible?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    19. Khanna, Rupali A. & Li, Yanfei & Mhaisalkar, Subodh & Kumar, Mahesh & Liang, Lim Jia, 2019. "Comprehensive energy poverty index: Measuring energy poverty and identifying micro-level solutions in South and Southeast Asia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 379-391.
    20. Unknown, 2016. "Energy for Sustainable Development," Conference Proceedings 253270, Guru Arjan Dev Institute of Development Studies (IDSAsr).
    21. Lan, Jun & Malik, Arunima & Lenzen, Manfred & McBain, Darian & Kanemoto, Keiichiro, 2016. "A structural decomposition analysis of global energy footprints," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 436-451.
    22. Neofytou, H. & Nikas, A. & Doukas, H., 2020. "Sustainable energy transition readiness: A multicriteria assessment index," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    23. Carmen Herrero & Jose' Pineda & Antonio Villar & Eduardo Zambrano, 2020. "The Inclusive Green Energy index of progress," Working Papers 2003, California Polytechnic State University, Department of Economics.
    24. Quadrelli, Roberta & Peterson, Sierra, 2007. "The energy-climate challenge: Recent trends in CO2 emissions from fuel combustion," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 5938-5952, November.
    25. Šprajc, Polona & Bjegović, Miroslav & Vasić, Bojana, 2019. "Energy security in decision making and governance - Methodological analysis of energy trilemma index," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-1.
    26. Reinsberger, Kathrin & Brudermann, Thomas & Hatzl, Stefanie & Fleiß, Eva & Posch, Alfred, 2015. "Photovoltaic diffusion from the bottom-up: Analytical investigation of critical factors," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 178-187.
    27. Spittler, Nathalie & Davidsdottir, Brynhildur & Shafiei, Ehsan & Leaver, Jonathan & Asgeirsson, Eyjolfur Ingi & Stefansson, Hlynur, 2020. "The role of geothermal resources in sustainable power system planning in Iceland," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 1081-1090.
    28. Herrero, Carmen & Pineda, José & Villar, Antonio & Zambrano, Eduardo, 2020. "Tracking progress towards accessible, green and efficient energy: The Inclusive Green Energy index," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 279(C).
    29. Destek, Mehmet Akif & Sarkodie, Samuel Asumadu & Asamoah, Ernest Frimpong, 2020. "Does biomass energy drive environmental sustainability? An SDG perspective for top five biomass consuming countries," MPRA Paper 114218, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 29 Mar 2021.
    30. Karagiannis, Roxani & Karagiannis, Giannis, 2020. "Constructing composite indicators with Shannon entropy: The case of Human Development Index," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    31. Lee, Cheuk Wing & Zhong, Jin, 2015. "Construction of a responsible investment composite index for renewable energy industry," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 288-303.
    32. Saaty, Thomas L., 1994. "Highlights and critical points in the theory and application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 74(3), pages 426-447, May.
    33. Saieed, Abu & Luken, Ralph & Zheng, Xiaole, 2021. "Tracking progress in meeting sustainable development goal 9 industry-related targets: An index for policy prioritization," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Koray Altintas & Ozalp Vayvay & Sinan Apak & Emine Cobanoglu, 2020. "An Extended GRA Method Integrated with Fuzzy AHP to Construct a Multidimensional Index for Ranking Overall Energy Sustainability Performances," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-21, February.
    2. Kang, Duan, 2024. "The establishment of evaluation systems and an index for energy superpower," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 356(C).
    3. Saieed, Abu & Luken, Ralph & Zheng, Xiaole, 2021. "Tracking progress in meeting sustainable development goal 9 industry-related targets: An index for policy prioritization," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    4. Wątróbski, Jarosław & Bączkiewicz, Aleksandra & Sałabun, Wojciech, 2022. "New multi-criteria method for evaluation of sustainable RES management," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    5. Puertas, R. & Marti, L., 2021. "International ranking of climate change action: An analysis using the indicators from the Climate Change Performance Index," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    6. Kirchhoff, Hannes & Strunz, Kai, 2019. "Key drivers for successful development of peer-to-peer microgrids for swarm electrification," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 244(C), pages 46-62.
    7. Gunnarsdottir, I. & Davidsdottir, B. & Worrell, E. & Sigurgeirsdottir, S., 2022. "Indicators for sustainable energy development: An Icelandic case study," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    8. Daniel Hoehn & María Margallo & Jara Laso & Israel Ruiz-Salmón & Laura Batlle-Bayer & Alba Bala & Pere Fullana-i-Palmer & Rubén Aldaco, 2021. "A Novel Composite Index for the Development of Decentralized Food Production, Food Loss, and Waste Management Policies: A Water-Climate-Food Nexus Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-14, March.
    9. A. G. Olabi & Khaled Obaideen & Mohammad Ali Abdelkareem & Maryam Nooman AlMallahi & Nabila Shehata & Abdul Hai Alami & Ayman Mdallal & Asma Ali Murah Hassan & Enas Taha Sayed, 2023. "Wind Energy Contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals: Case Study on London Array," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-22, March.
    10. Joseph M. Kiesecker & Shivaprakash K. Nagaraju & James R. Oakleaf & Anthony Ortiz & Juan Lavista Ferres & Caleb Robinson & Srinivas Krishnaswamy & Raman Mehta & Rahul Dodhia & Jeffrey S. Evans & Micha, 2023. "The Road to India’s Renewable Energy Transition Must Pass through Crowded Lands," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-18, November.
    11. Sandu, Suwin & Yang, Muyi & Phoumin, Han & Aghdam, Reza Fathollahzadeh & Shi, Xunpeng, 2021. "Assessment of accessible, clean and efficient energy systems: A statistical analysis of composite energy performance indices," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 304(C).
    12. Ebrahimi, Mehri & Rahmani, Donya, 2019. "A five-dimensional approach to sustainability for prioritizing energy production systems using a revised GRA method: A case study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 345-354.
    13. Pilar Díaz-Cuevas, 2018. "GIS-Based Methodology for Evaluating the Wind-Energy Potential of Territories: A Case Study from Andalusia (Spain)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-16, October.
    14. Siskos, Eleftherios & Burgherr, Peter, 2022. "Multicriteria decision support for the evaluation of electricity supply resilience: Exploration of interacting criteria," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 298(2), pages 611-626.
    15. Gong, Chengzhu & Gong, Nianjiao & Qi, Rui & Yu, Shiwei, 2020. "Assessment of natural gas supply security in Asia Pacific: Composite indicators with compromise Benefit-of-the-Doubt weights," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    16. Chuan Li & Liangrong Song, 2022. "Regional Differences and Spatial Convergence of Green Development in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-16, July.
    17. Elkadeem, Mohamed R. & Younes, Ali & Mazzeo, Domenico & Jurasz, Jakub & Elia Campana, Pietro & Sharshir, Swellam W. & Alaam, Mohamed A., 2022. "Geospatial-assisted multi-criterion analysis of solar and wind power geographical-technical-economic potential assessment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).
    18. Fairouz Mustafa & Suman Lodh & Monomita Nandy & Vikas Kumar, 2022. "Coupling of cryptocurrency trading with the sustainable environmental goals: Is it on the cards?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 1152-1168, March.
    19. Qurat-ul-Ann, Abre-Rehmat & Mirza, Faisal Mehmood, 2020. "Meta-analysis of empirical evidence on energy poverty: The case of developing economies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    20. Madurai Elavarasan, Rajvikram & Pugazhendhi, Rishi & Jamal, Taskin & Dyduch, Joanna & Arif, M.T. & Manoj Kumar, Nallapaneni & Shafiullah, GM & Chopra, Shauhrat S. & Nadarajah, Mithulananthan, 2021. "Envisioning the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the lens of energy sustainability (SDG 7) in the post-COVID-19 world," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:307:y:2022:i:c:s0306261921014446. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.