Conflicts of Climate Change Mitigation Actions with the Sustainable Development Goals

Despite a strong connection between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, climate change mitigation actions and sustainable development objectives are oftentimes not aligned efficiently, causing conflicts between the objectives.

This thesis creates a systematic overview of conflicts of three renewable energy technologies with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by a literature review in Web of Science. The technologies solar energy, wind energy and hydropower function as examples for climate change mitigation actions. Out of 530 screened articles, 63 demonstrated conflicts. The systematic overview reveals that conflicts are different for each technology, but conflicts in regard to biodiversity loss and the degradation of natural habitats (SDG 15) and inequalities (SDG 10) were frequently identified for all technologies.

The results of the systematic overview suggest that the site selection and the decision-making process on the construction of renewable energy projects are crucial stages to avoid conflicts with the SDGs.

Jan-Hendrik Scheyl:

Conflicts of Climate Change Mitigation Actions with the Sustainable Development Goals
Creating a Systematic Overview by the Example of Renewable Energy Technologies

Wuppertal 2020, ISBN 978-3-946356-17-2

(Wuppertaler Studienarbeiten zur nachhaltigen Entwicklung no. 20)