Use of Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development in Nepal

Abstract

This paper examines Nepal’s energy use having the objective of how renewable energy is creating a sustainable development, focusing on the role of electricity in development and the potential of renewable energy for sustainability. This study employs mixed research design following descriptive analysis. Nepal faces energy shortages, particularly in oil, gas, and coal, with domestic energy largely relying on biomass sources like firewood, crop residues, and animal dung. Fossil fuels are heavily imported, straining the economy and creating financial challenges, especially due to the rising cost of petroleum imports. Limited access to environmentally sustainable energy impacts both national development and the living standards of Nepal’s people. The use of conventional energy sources not only increases costs and wastes time but also harms the environment. Energy consumption correlates with major indicators of human development, including life expectancy, literacy rate, health, sanitation, housing, and income, that are all influenced by energy availability and quality. Although Nepal's major renewable resource hydroelectricity that it has great potential, its growth has been lagging due to reasons such as lack of domestic investment, political instability, and poor policy implementation because its users were 3909641 in 2018 and 5134058 in 2023 that it has been found its users increment as 1124417 (NEA, 2023). Thus these issues delay the country’s development journey toward sustainable use of energy and development sustainability in Nepal.