Keele Research Repository

In Bangladesh, energy poverty in small and remote coastal communities inhibits development and exacerbates livelihood and migration pressures, social changes, and gender disparities. Climate change threatens low lying coastal areas, bringing sea level rise and increasing salinity. Cyclones and flash floods are having increasing impacts on coastal terrains, habitats, and associated livelihoods. Such challenges are faced by similar communities globally and represent significant barriers to addressing multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - in particular across Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Small-scale renewables potentially offer clean and secure energy solutions that also address the broader climate change mitigation context. Yet existing efforts to address energy challenges with small-scale renewables typically perform poorly. We argue that solutions need to be tailored to specific socioeconomic contexts and use durable established technologies in economically and socially viable local business models. Long term and catastrophe-resilient renewables solutions to energy challenges will help vulnerable communities adapt to climate change. Work towards solutions that address the UN SDGs is being carried forward through approaches that are internationally translatable, especially to SIDS.