UN calls for sustainable energy for all as International Year kicks off
The United Nations is calling on all stakeholders to help expand energy access, improve efficiency and increase the use of renewables as the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All kicks off.
Globally, one person in five still lacks access to modern electricity and twice that number rely on wood, coal, charcoal, or animal waste for cooking and heating.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon says sustainable energy for all is within reach. He stressed that energy is central to everything, from powering economies to achieving the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals, from combating climate change to underpinning global security.
Widespread energy poverty still condemns billions to darkness, to ill-health, to missed opportunities for education and prosperity. Ban Ki-Moon emphasized the need to scale up successful examples of clean energy and energy-efficient technologies; innovation that can spread throughout the developing world; partnerships with the private sector; and visionary leadership.
He stressed that energy poverty cannot be allowed to jeopardize progress towards the MDGs – targets aimed at slashing global poverty by 2015 by combating hunger, disease, illiteracy, environment degradation and discrimination against women.
To generate action to reduce energy poverty, catalyze sustainable economic growth and mitigate the risks of climate change, the Secretary-General last year set up a high-level group.
The group is tasked with promoting his Sustainable Energy for All initiative, which seeks to ensure universal access to modern energy services, double the rate of improvement in energy efficiency and double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix, all by 2030.
