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Energy and Environment: Sustainable Development Goals and Global Policy Landscape
The global challenges faced by the humankind encompass access to clean and affordable energy for all, shifting to the green development path and tackling the consequences of climate change. Success in addressing the related goals relies on the concerted efforts of society at large, whereby researchers may offer new solutions and media could raise awareness and organize public discussions. This chapter examines the policy landscape created for addressing the global energy and environment goals, as defined in the international documents. Moreover, the chapter analyses attention given to these goals by researchers, business and media. More specifically, the chapter focuses on goals set in the legally binding universal agreements and conventions formulated and adopted by the United Nations: “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” (SDGs or SG), the Paris Agreement (PA), the “Future We Want” Resolution (FWW), and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPI). Research methods include policy analysis and the smart big data analysis of thousands of publications on the topic. The authors highlight controversial policy issues, as well as relatively low attention to global energy challenges on behalf of mass media. Researchers address these challenges much more often, however, focus primarily on a few SDGs. The outcomes underline further steps to be taken by global and national policymakers.