What can Petroleum Engineer contribute in achieving United Nations SDG 2030?

Before heading into the things that a PE can do in order to contribute in achieving UN
SDG by 2030, we must know what is UN SDG 2030. The Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs), officially known as Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development is a set of seventeen aspirational "Global Goals" with 169 targets between them.
Spearheaded by the United Nations, through a deliberative process involving its 194 Member
States, as well as global civil society, the goals are contained in paragraph 54 United Nations
Resolution A/RES/70/1 of 25 September 2015. The Resolution is broader intergovernmental
agreement that, while acting as the Post 2015 Development Agenda (successor to the Millennium
Development Goals), builds on the Principles agreed upon under Resolution A/RES/66/288,
popularly known as The Future We Want. The SDGs were in large measure informed by the oft
quoted assertion by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that "there can be no Plan
B, because there is no Planet B."

On 19 July 2014, the UN General Assembly's Open Working Group (OWG) on

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) forwarded a proposal for the SDGs to the Assembly.
The proposal contained 17 goals with 169 targets covering a broad range of sustainable
development issues. These included ending poverty and hunger, improving health and education,
making cities more sustainable, combating climate change, and protecting oceans and forests. On
5 December 2014, the UN General Assembly accepted the Secretary-General's Synthesis Report
which stated that the agenda for the post-2015 SDG process would be based on the OWG
proposals.

The Intergovernmental Negotiations on the Post 2015 Development Agenda (IGN) began
in January 2015 and ended in August 2015. Following the negotiations, a final document was
adopted at the UN Sustainable Development Summit September 2527, 2015 in New York,
USA. The title of the agenda is Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development.
Sustainable Development Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and
promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

As Petroleum Engineer, we often need to go to the road less travelled. We

go to the many remote spot. And as the company is creating Oil Rig
platform inland, we have the obligation to do Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR). Corporate Social Responsibility is a form of
corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. CSR policy
functions as a self-regulatory mechanism whereby a business monitors
and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards and national or
international norms. One of the active compliance is regarding having good relationship with
local residents of the remote area.

We have the obligation to make sure that education is available to the area where we are
heading. The Corporate Social Responsibility fund may be put in many areas, but Education
must be put in one of top priority, especially in a very remote area which happened to be less
educated. And by putting companys fund in Education segment, a firm's implementation of CSR
goes beyond compliance and engages in "actions that appear to further some social good, beyond
the interests of the firm and that which is required by law."

Sustainable Development Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and
girls

Gender equality and womens empowerment have advanced in recent

decades. Girls access to education has improved, the rate of child
marriage declined and progress was made in the area of sexual and
reproductive health and reproductive rights, including fewer maternal
deaths. Nevertheless, gender equality remains a persistent challenge for
countries worldwide and the lack of such equality is a major obstacle to
sustainable development.
 In petroleum Engineering work area, there are slight difference between the number of
Men and Women as workforce. Of course there are a slight influence of having harsh workplace
with the number of women involved. But there are several evidences as well that women didnt
get the chance to work in oil and gas industries just because they are women. As petroleum
engineer, we can help UN to achieve the SDG by removing the necessities of having men worker
as a plus point opposed to having women worker, as long as they are having the requirements
needed to work as Petroleum Engineer.

Sustainable Development Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and

modern energy for all

Energy is crucial for achieving almost all of the Sustainable

Development Goals, from its role in the eradication of poverty through
advancements in health, education, water supply and industrialization, to
combating climate change. Affordable and Clean Energy are closely
related to petroleum engineering in such a way. As in today, almost 90%
of energy usage depend on fossil fuels. The United Nations sustainable development goal
number 7 refers to the use of affordable and clean energy.

From this point alone, we knew that UN is trying to reduce the usage of fossil fuel as it is
not a form of clean energy. The best that we can do as a petroleum engineering is by working in a
cleaner form energy, that is Geothermal Energy. Geothermal energy is generally considered
environmentally friendly and does not cause significant amounts of pollution. Geothermal
reservoirs are naturally replenished and therefore renewable (it is not possible to exhaust the
resources). It also has massive potential upper estimates show a worldwide potential of 2
terawatts (TW).

Geothermal energies are excellent for meeting the base load energy demand (as opposed
to other renewables such as wind and solar). And it is great for heating and cooling even small
households can benefit. Harnessing geothermal energy does not involve any fuels, which means
less cost fluctuations and stable electricity prices. And geothermal leaves small footprint on land
 can be built partially underground. Geothermal energy is available everywhere, although only
some resources are profitably exploitable. And last but not least Recent technological
advancements (e.g. enhanced geothermal systems) have made more resources exploitable and
lowered costs.

Sustainable Development Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic

growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Sustained and inclusive economic growth is necessary for

achieving sustainable development. The global annual growth rate of real
GDP per capita increased by 1.3 per cent in 2014, a significant
slowdown compared to 2010 (2.8 per cent growth) and 2000 (3.0 per
cent growth). Developing regions grew far faster than developed regions,
with average annual growth rates in 2014 of 3.1 per cent and 1.4 per cent, respectively.
Petroleum engineer can contribute to develop a decent work and economic growth to the country.
Levies coming from petroleum industries can further evolve the economic growth, thus can make
a decent work to all societies.

It is a basic knowledge, that the economic growth is measured by GDP in macro

economics. Having a job in Petroleum Engineers help to increase GDP, as it creates production
factor in form of service. The society really depends on what they are doing. the objective of
making a decent work can lead to a better economy. Imagine if all working environment have a
decent atmosphere, economics would be much better and can support other sustainable
development goal to achieve its 2030 target.

Sustainable Development Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and

sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

This goal encompasses three important aspects of sustainable development:

infrastructure, industrialization and innovation. Infrastructure provides the basic physical
systems and structures essential to the operation of a society or enterprise. Industrialization
drives economic growth, creates job opportunities and thereby reduces income poverty.
 Innovation advances the technological capabilities of industrial sectors
and prompts the development of new skills. Petroleum industries does
all of that aspects.

During an exploration and production programme, Oil Company

are developing infrastructure to help their interest. But many of the
infrastructures build by oil companies are being left for society after the EP ended. Many
countries depend their infrastructure development by petroleum industries. Lets take a look at
Saudi Arabia and United States as the highest producing oil countries in the world. Oil industry
contribution to their country made its country to develop their infrastructure. As in United States,
their innovation in technology made them produce shale oil which has lead to the drop of oil
price. Their country has the best education for petroleum engineering so far. The availability of
human resources in petroleum engineering leads to better innovation and make them to innovate
more so they can further develop their infrastructure and other industries.

Sustainable Development Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production

patterns.

Economic growth and development require the production of

goods and services that improve the quality of life. Sustainable growth
and development require minimizing the natural resources and toxic
materials used, and the waste and pollutants generated, throughout the
entire production and consumption process. Two measures, material
footprint and domestic material consumption, provide an accounting of global material extraction
and use, as well as flows or consumption of materials in countries. The material footprint reflects
the amount of primary materials required to meet a countrys needs. It is an indicator of the
material standard of living or level of capitalization of an economy. Domestic material
consumption measures the amount of natural resources used in economic processes.

As a Petroleum Engineer, our job is to produce hydrocarbons. Therefore, it is our duty to

leave smallest footprint as we can in doing our job. We must ensure that what we do in producing
hydrocarbon leaves small environmental footprint. And as we are doing the production, we use
electricity and other forms of energy as well. We must do our job as effective and as efficient as
possible, so in our goal to produce energy, less energy are consumed.

Sustainable Development Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its
impacts

Climate change presents the single biggest threat to development,

and its widespread, unprecedented impacts disproportionately burden the
poorest and most vulnerable. Urgent action to combat climate change
and minimize its disruptions is integral to the successful implementation
of the Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainable development goals
number 13, Climate Change, is the single biggest threat to our environment in every
development. This climate change also referred to the temperature of our atmosphere. Our
atmosphere temperature keeps increasing by 1 degree Celsius each year.

The climate change is happened because of the greenhouse gases that is produced by
engine combustion from everyday transportation consumption. But it also produced by the
industries. As a petroleum engineer, we can help by creating innovation to reduce greenhouse
gases produced by our industries.

Another way is by being an engineer that helps fight CO 2 by using Carbon Capture
Storage. This technology is the process of capturing waste carbon dioxide (CO2) from large
point sources, such as fossil fuel power plants, transporting it to a storage site, and depositing it
where it will not enter the atmosphere, normally an underground geological formation. The aim
is to prevent the release of large quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere (from fossil fuel use in
power generation and other industries). It is a potential means of mitigating the contribution of
fossil fuel emissions to global warming and ocean acidification. Although CO2 has been injected
into geological formations for several decades for various purposes, including enhanced oil
recovery, the long term storage of CO2 is a relatively new concept.
Sustainable Development Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of
terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and
reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Preserving diverse forms of life on land requires targeted efforts to

protect, restore and promote the conservation and sustainable use of
terrestrial and other ecosystems. Goal 15 focuses specifically on
managing forests sustainably, restoring degraded lands and successfully
combating desertification, reducing degraded natural habitats and ending
biodiversity loss. As petroleum engineer, we can help to promote
sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems.

The process of exploration and production in oil and gas industries often force us to use
massive land area. Therefore, we need to make sure that in using the massive area, we dont give
further bad influence to area nearby. And after abandonment (that is finished production), we
have to make sure to reverse land degradation, and in case we have use forest area, we must
create the forest area back to before.

Sustainable Development Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize
the global partnership for sustainable development

Achieving the ambitious targets of the 2030 Agenda requires a

revitalized and enhanced global partnership that brings together
Governments, civil society, the private sector, the United Nations system
and other actors and mobilizes all available resources. Enhancing
support to developing countries, in particular the least developed
countries and the small island developing States, is fundamental to
equitable progress for all.

Urgent action is needed to mobilize, redirect and unlock the transformative power of
trillions of dollars of private resources to deliver on sustainable development objectives. Long-
term investments, including foreign direct investment, are needed in critical sectors, especially in
developing countries. These include sustainable energy, infrastructure and transport, as well as
information and communications technologies. The public sector will need to set a clear
direction. Review and monitoring frameworks, regulations and incentive structures that enable
such investments must be retooled to attract investments and reinforce sustainable development.
National oversight mechanisms such as supreme audit institutions and oversight functions by
legislatures should be strengthened.

Of course petroleum industries are one of the biggest industries in the world. The global
partnership needs us the petroleum engineering sector to contribute to other goals as well,
especially in part of foreign direct investment, which are needed in critical sectors.