Abstract
Renewable energy is widely regarded as a cornerstone of sustainable development
and is the only energy form with its own target among the UN Sustainable
Development Goals. Yet converting renewable sources into usable energy requires
labor, land, and resources – creating interactions with other facets of sustainable
development. The primary objective of this thesis is to gain new empirical
knowledge about interactions between renewable energy and sustainable
development, with emphasis on the imperative of environmental limits. These
interactions are examined by using historical data at the country level, with
particular emphasis on the tension between climate change mitigation and
biosphere integrity – two key sustainability themes linked to the planetary
boundaries.
This thesis is grounded in the Sustainable Development Space (SDS) model (Holden
et al., 2017, 2026) which concretizes sustainable development through three
imperatives: satisfying human needs, ensuring social justice, and respecting
environmental limits. Each imperative is measured by two headline indicators with
associated thresholds. Within the imperative of limits, two narratives related to
renewable energy frame the thesis: a carbon-free energy system – which renewable
energy supports – and make room for nature – where renewable energy is
considered a threat.
Across three articles, we apply various quantitative methods. Article 1 is a rapid
systematic review of 285 studies on renewable energy and quantification practices
for biosphere integrity, classifying applied indicators into biodiversity, topography,
and productivity approaches. Article 2 combines k-means clustering with
scatterplots and locally weighted smoothing lines on data from 133 countries
(2013–2022), examining interactions between the SDG 7.2.1 renewable energy
share and all six SDS indicators, including the Biodiversity Intactness Index. Article 3
applies within-between random effects panel regression on 159 countries (2000–
2020) to estimate associations between modern renewable energy shares and both
the ecological footprint and its non-carbon variant.
Three main findings emerge. First, 92 % of country-level studies on aggregated
renewable energy and biosphere integrity interactions rely on productivity
approaches – primarily the ecological footprint – while biodiversity and topography
perspectives each represent only 4 % (Article 1). Second, the cross-sectional
analysis in Article 2 identifies a trade-off between the SDG 7.2.1 renewable energy
share and aggregated sustainable development performance, driven by large gaps in
needs and justice in countries where traditional biomass dominates. Within the
imperative of limits, the two primary goals show contrasting interactions: a synergy
with climate change mitigation and a neutral association with the Biodiversity
Intactness Index. However, no affluent country with high renewable energy shares
meets the per capita greenhouse gas emissions threshold (Article 2). Third, modern
renewable energy's reduction of the ecological footprint is almost entirely driven by
its carbon component. When carbon is excluded, the within-country association
with the non-carbon footprint weakens and becomes statistically uncertain, while
the between-country association becomes positive and statistically significant:
countries with historically higher modern renewable shares have higher non-carbon
footprints (Article 3).
Taken together, these findings reveal that renewable energy's role in sustainable
development is neither uniform across contexts nor captured by any single
indicator. The aggregate trade-off identified in Article 2 is unpacked further in the
thesis discussion by disaggregating renewable energy into traditional and modern
forms: traditional renewable energy co-varies with large gaps in needs and justice,
while modern renewable energy shows a different and more varied pattern across
the sustainable development space. The ecological footprint – the dominant
country-level indicator in this literature – captures modern renewable energy's
carbon-related effects but remains a limited proxy for biosphere integrity even
when carbon is excluded. This thesis therefore identifies two complementary needs
in quantitative research on renewable energy and sustainable development
interactions: (i) disaggregated treatment of renewable energy types, and (ii)
complementary biosphere integrity indicators with direct sensitivity to ecosystem
state, such as those proposed by the planetary boundary framework.