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UN / SUSTAINABLE ENERGY FOR ALL
STORY: UN / SUSTAINABLE ENERGY FOR ALL
TRT: 01:11
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 15 SEPTEMBER 2023, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters
15 SEPTEMBER 2023, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, speakers, briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Damilola Ogunbiyi, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All and Dialogue, United Nations /Co-Chair, UN-Energy:
“There is still an urgent need to significantly increase ambition and finance to trillions of dollars to keep SDG 7 alive.”
4. Med shot, journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Haoliang Xu, Assistant Secretary-General / Director, Bureau of Policy and Programme Support, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP):
“While the progress is significant, we know that if we don’t take further actions by 2030, we will still have 660 million people without access to clean energy. And we will still have 1.9 billion people without clean cooking solutions by 2030. So, the urgency of the matter is still significant.”
6. Close up, photographer
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Haoliang Xu, Assistant Secretary-General / Director, Bureau of Policy and Programme Support, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP):
“To achieve the energy goal, we need everyone to be on board: governments, international organizations, private sectors, non-governmental organizations, and local communities themselves.”
8. Med shot, journalists
According to a new UN report, new multi-billion-dollar commitments to boost renewables and access to electricity and clean cooking technologies by 2030 have brought the finance and investment pledged through the UN for the energy transition over the trillion-dollar mark.
The second annual Energy Compact progress report, launched today (15 Sep), shows an uptick in "Energy Compact" voluntary commitments to be deployed by 2030, aimed at reducing the ranks of 675 million people living without electricity and over 2 billion still cooking with polluting fuels, while setting the world on a climate action trajectory towards net-zero emissions by 2050.
Addressing journalists on the report and previewing announcements expected on scaling up Energy Compacts as a high-impact initiative to take place on SDG Acceleration Day on 17 September, Damilola Ogunbiyi, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All, highlighted that there is still an urgent need to significantly increase ambition and finance to trillions of dollars to keep the goal of clean, affordable energy for all (SDG 7) alive.
The new report comes ahead of the UN SDG Summit on 18-19 September, aiming to drive action on the Sustainable Development Goals, for which only 15 percent of the measurable targets are on track.
SDG 7 has shown progress but not at the pace and scale needed to meet the 2030 deadline.
Haoliang Xu, Under-Secretary-General and Associate Administrator of UNDP said, “While the progress is significant, we know that if we don’t take further actions by 2030, we will still have 660 million people without access to clean energy. And we will still have 1.9 billion people without clean cooking solutions by 2030. So, the urgency of the matter is still significant.”
Meeting this goal is also essential for reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 and limiting warming to 1.5 degrees C above average preindustrial temperatures, a critical target for averting ever-worsening climate disasters.
Achieving SDG 7 and its related climate ambitions would require sharply scaling up ambition towards a clean energy transition, including additional investments of USD 22-48 trillion in the years to 2030.
The Energy Compacts progress report outlines commitments from governments and the private sector, topping US$1.1 trillion, including planned spending by countries for domestic and international action to increase energy access, efficiency, and renewables, as well as private sector investment slated in these areas.
Haoliang Xu stressed, “To achieve the energy goal, we need everyone to be on board: governments, international organizations, private sectors, non-governmental organizations, and local communities themselves.”
As shown in the new report, expanded commitments over the past year are building on over US$600 billion in finance and investment committed through nearly 200 Energy Compacts made in connection with the UN High-level Dialogue on Energy, a summit held in 2021.
The Energy Compacts have been selected as one of 12 high-impact initiatives that the UN development system is mobilizing around for the SDG Summit to scale up progress by 2030.
They will feature at a high-level event on 17 September during SDG Action Weekend.
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