Sustaining efforts to ensure access to sustainable energy

Energy lies at the heart of both the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. As governments worldwide tackle the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, we must not lose sight of the critical need for an accelerated clean energy transition. Ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030 will open a new world of opportunities for billions of people through new economic opportunities and jobs, empowered women, children and youth, better education and health, more sustainable, equitable and inclusive communities, and greater protections from, and resilience to, climate change impacts Achieving SDG 7 will catalyze actions to combat climate change and advance targets of other SDGs and will contribute to accelerate transition to carbon neutral economy.

Proposed guiding questions:

How does/will the COVID-19 crisis and associated volatility in oil prices affect the energy sector?
How can clean energy investments contribute to a better and stronger recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic?
How do we deploy the four “levers” identified in the GSDR - governance, economy and finance, science and technology, and individual and collective action – to accelerate the clean energy transition?
How do we accelerate the clean energy transition, while expanding access to electricity, achieving progress on clean cooking and ensuring the increase in transport movements is sustainable?
How can we mainstream decarbonization, decentralization and digitalization of energy systems into updated Nationally Determined Contributions to maximize synergies between the energy transition and climate action?
What are the outstanding challenges, and best practices to mobilize finance for clean energy investments, in particular in particular least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states?
How do we advance the SDG Decade of Action through innovative and knowledge-based policies and partnerships? What affordable, reliable and gender-responsive energy solutions do frontier technologies offer?

Chair:

H. E. Ambassador Mher Margaryan, Armenia, Vice President of ECOSOC

Moderator:

Ms. Damilola Ogunbiyi, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All

Resource persons:

Mr. Francesco La Camera, Director-General, International Renewable Energy Agency
Mr. Hans Olav Ibrekk, Policy Director, Energy and Climate Change, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Co-Facilitator of SDG 7 Technical Advisory Group
Ms. Sheila Oparaocha, Executive Director, ENERGIA (international network on gender and sustainable energy)

Lead discussant:

Ms. Leena Srivastava, Deputy Director General for Science, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, India (Science & Technology Community Major Group)

Followed by interactive discussion

Respondents:

H.E. Mr. Omar Ayub Khan, Minister of Energy, Pakistan
H.E. Ms. Cristina Gallach, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and for Ibero-America and the Caribbean (Vice-minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Spain
Mr. Li Yong, Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
Ms. Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
H.E. Ms. Fatima Al Foora, Assistant Minister for the Ministry of Energy, United Arab Emirates