Shift to clean, affordable energy critical
Shift to clean, affordable energy critical to attaining Global Goals – UN officials
1 November 2017 – To tackle the double challenge of energy poverty and climate change – producing clean, affordable energy at a pace that will meet rising demand without environmental detriment – all stakeholders must step up efforts to transform the world’s energy systems for everyone’s benefit, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Wednesday.
“Energy is the golden thread that connects all the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” the Secretary-General told a
High-Level Symposium on Global Energy
Interconnection, at UN Headquarters today, where
participants gathered to discuss ways to advance the 17
globally-agreed Goals.
Modern energy services are
integral to poverty reduction, food security, public health
and quality education for all. Moreover, they are the key to
sustainable industrialization, healthier more efficient
cities and successful climate action.
Despite this understanding, Mr. Guterres said the world is still far from achieving the vision of SDG7 on affordable and clean energy for all. Indeed, some one billion people still live without any access to any electricity at all – 500 million in Africa and more than 400 million in the Asia-Pacific region. And three billion still cook and heat their homes without the benefit of clean fuels and more efficient technologies.
Secretary-General speaking at Energy
Interconnection: Advancing the Sustainable Development
Goals”, organized by the Department of Economic and Social
Affairs (DESA), in collaboration with the Global Energy
Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization. UN
Photo/Eskinder Debebe
“So, the world needs more energy,
and – in particular – more clean energy,” Mr. Guterres
continued, but stressed that as this need rises, the world
is experiencing rising temperatures and in 2016, atmospheric
levels of carbon dioxide surged to a new high.
Recalling the sobering report issued just yesterday by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) which found that pledges made under the Paris Agreement are only a third of what is required by 2030 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, the Secretary-General said falling short of the agreed 2 degrees Celsius temperature rise would be “catastrophic.”
Against this background, and in light of the devastating hurricane season that had just battered the Caribbean and similar extreme weather events elsewhere, urgent climate action is needed. “That means transforming the world’s energy systems. It means promoting modern technologies than can fulfil energy needs without polluting the environment and pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere,” Mr. Guterres explained.
He said today’s Symposium could help point the way, as it would feature both policy- and technical-level presentations on how to strengthen global energy interconnection through the deployment of smart grids.
“With smart grids it is now
feasible to generate, transmit and distribute power
efficiently, cutting transmission losses and providing
clean, affordable, economically viable and environmentally
sound energy services,” he stated.
Echoing the
Secretary-General’s sense of urgency, Liu Zhenmin, the UN
Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs,
said the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,
with its 17 SDGs and 169 targets, puts a strong
emphasis on inter-linkages. As such, progress in
implementing SDG7 on energy is bound to impact delivery on
other Goals.
Department of Economic and Social Affairs
(DESA), in collaboration with the Global Energy
Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization. UN
Photo/Eskinder Debebe
“Likewise, without increased access to modern energy,
energy efficiency and renewable energy, there will be no
progress on climate action,” he said, emphasizing: “So,
we need to move from silo to synergy.” And in that regard,
the UN is reforming its development system in response to
the 2030 Agenda to provide more coherent support to Member
States.
Turning to the role of SDG7 in the broader
context of the 2030 Agenda, Mr. Liu highlighted three key
points:
• Ensuring access to affordable, reliable,
sustainable and modern energy for all is fundamental to a
peaceful, inclusive and sustainable work, and a necessary
investment in our collective future;
• Energy is
inextricably linked to most of the global challenges now and
in the future, including poverty, food security, clean
water, infrastructure, public health, education, economic
growth, youth’s and women’s empowerment, and climate
change; and
• Access to modern energy must go beyond
residential power access. It must aim to unlock new
entrepreneurial opportunities for the growing workforce, so
that they can become the next global engine for the new
economies of the future.
•
“New technologies, new
business models, and new approaches to capacity building are
all needed to transform the world and achieve global
sustainable development. The global energy interconnection,
through smart grids, offers one such avenue,” he
said.
But such global energy interconnection, or GEI, can only work in partnership. “The technology for worldwide energy connectivity is there. The barriers are institutional, not technological,” stated Mr. Liu, calling for a change in mindset, and stressing that decisive progress can only be made through partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources are indispensable to success