Exploring the Potential of Cross-Border Energy Trade in SAARC Countries for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) aims to develop a ring for sustainable generation of energy that caters for the needs of the member nations. Being a primarily underdeveloped region, the union of SAARC countries is facing a serious energy crisis, owing to rapid increase in population and industrialization. All the member countries predominantly rely upon imported fossil fuels for power generation. In line with the vision of SAARC, this research explores the potential of renewable energy and provides a quantitative cross-border electricity trade assessment and its social-economical-technical (SET) impact on the SAARC region. The research presented in this article signifies the need for cross-border electricity trade to fulfill the ever-increasing demand-supply gap in the region by providing a rudimentary framework. This approach has the viable potential for alleviating the substandard quality of life in the region. The paper highlights near-border cities of SAARC countries that can potentially perform cross-border electricity trade in the SAARC region. In the first phase, near-border cities of the SAARC countries are highlighted. Moreover, as a part of social impact, this study analyzes the social needs of energy suppliers and receiving regions and maps it with the United Nations' sustainable development goals. The SDG mapping process is based on the societal needs of the supplier and receiver countries. The societal needs are assessed and mapped with the corresponding SDGs. Results reveal that India can potentially provide power to the neighboring countries through wind and solar power generating 125.9 million US dollars and providing 2485 GWh of energy which is 85% of the total generation in the SAARC region which is 2896.51 GWh. A total of 2.2 Ton/GWh of CO₂ mitigation can be achieved through green generation whereas 13 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be achieved through social impacts between the energy trading countries.