The energy access dividend: Our final day of the 2017 Sustainable Energy for All Forum focused on the energy access dividend, with sessions focusing on exploring the dividends that accrue with energy services and the case for going further, faster – together. From looking at the ‘new market’ and assessing whether the private sector can really service the bottom of the pyramid, to how energy providers are increasing productivity through decentralized solutions, the final day of the Forum addressed core issues in how we ensure an energy transition for all, and as Mary Robinson said in a press conference, “how we reach those furthest behind, first.”
Mary Robinson, President and Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, interviewed by Benjamin Steinlechner, Connect4Climate
During the day, 9 of our speakers lined the Forum circular stage to reveal plans for a new people-centered accelerator to advance gender equality, social inclusion and women’s empowerment in the sustainable energy sector. Through this accelerator, partners will work together to progress action towards these three goals, while working with leaders to promote an energy transition supports these people-centered aims and leaves no one behind. The accelerator is due to formally be launched later in the year.
During her closing speech, Rachel Kyte, Chief Executive Officer of Sustainable Energy for All and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), said “We built this Forum – and every session in it - on an evidence base: a foundation hewn from the latest Global Tracking Framework, the dashboard that we use to measure progress on Sustainable Development Goal #7. It shows us that there are many extraordinary things happening – and happening all around the world. And those things are happening – in very large part – because of the work you, here at this Forum, are doing. And together, we’ve had the courage to interrogate the latest evidence. Because that’s what real movements do.”
Rachel Kyte talked to Connect4Climate. Photo Credits: Max Thabiso Edkins
ENERGIA presented the Women Entrepreneurship Awards to five inspirational winners from across Africa and Asia in our final afternoon – with successful entrepreneurs, leaders in their communities and role models for other entrepreneurs all being named winners. The awards recognize outstanding work and encourage the winners to perform even better in the future. Each winner will now receive 1,000 euros for the strengthening of their capacities to run an energy business or for enhancing the profitability of their business.
An emerging global campaign on energy access, Shine: Investing in Energy Access for All, was also revealed during the final day of this year’s Forum, focusing on diversifying the sources of finance to support energy access. The campaign will unite partners from the faith, development and philanthropic sectors to commit to mobilizing new forms of capital, scaling resources and generating momentum to achieve universal access to clean, affordable and reliable energy by 2030 and support Sustainable Development Goal 7. It was also confirmed during the day's press conference that the World Council of Churches – which brings together churches, denominations and church fellowships in more than 110 countries and territories throughout the world, representing over 500 million Christians – had committed to join the campaign.
Sustainable Energy for All Forum venue in New York City. Photo Credits: Max Thabiso Edkins/Connect4Climate
The Poor People's Energy Outlook (PPEO) report from Practical Action was launched during the final day, and showed how reforming energy financing can radically hasten energy access. Results showed that poor families in developing countries are being denied access to basic technology and services by financial systems which fail to bring them modern energy.
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We’re making progress on the sustainable energy goals, but not more speed and scale are needed. Energy efficiency holds enormous promise, but it’s not sexy and it lacks capital. Even with the political paralysis in countries like the U.S., cities around the world are making big gains on sustainable energy. Christiana Figueres is still a rock star who evokes urgency like nobody else. “Swallow the alarm clock. The next 3 to 4 years (on climate action) will determine our future,” she told a packed audience of 1,000 in Brooklyn. And Michael Leibrich knows how to close things out.
"There's a very clear equation we can cement into our brains: More carbon equals more poverty; less carbon equals less poverty," Christiana Figueres said.
The new 2017 Global Tracking Framework report shows only incremental progress on the Sustainable Energy for All goals. While hundreds of millions of people gained access to clean cooking, electricity and renewable energy from 2012 to 2014, more than 1 billion people overall – one of every 7 people on the planet - are still living in the dark with no access to power. Put simply, the world is not on track to meet key UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030: universal access to modern energy services and doubling energy efficiency improvements and doubling the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. “Business, as usual, is not good enough. We need speed and scale,” SEforALL CEO Rachel Kyte said, kicking off the three-day forum.
[video:https://youtu.be/pDQeXxbpGjM]
SEforALL CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All Rachel Kyte explains Sustainable Energy for All Forum to Connect4Climate
Nonetheless, the report was chock-full with pockets of progress, among those: 56 million more Indonesians are now cooking with clean fuel instead of high-polluting kerosene; 90 percent of the population in war-torn Afghanistan now has electricity - much of it solar - up from 50 percent only four years ago; off-grid renewables, driven by plummeting prices for wind and solar PVs, are flipping on the lights for tens of millions in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
Energy efficiency was the only area that saw tangible gains in the report, with China, UK, Mexico, Russia, Italy, Australia, and Nigeria all improving their energy intensity by more than 2 percent a year. Overall, global energy intensity improved by 2 percent a year, but that’s still short of the 2.6 percent annual growth rate needed to meet the 2030 goal. Stronger policies are one of the keys to accelerating gains. “If you don’t have strict regulations, it is very difficult,” said Tanya Muller Garcia, Secretary of the Environment in Mexico City, which has instituted tighter efficiency standards in construction regulations. Another key is more creative financing, whether the green bonds that Mexico City is using or tax credits that Quebec is offering for energy-saving renovations. Still, overall financing levels need to grow by a factor of 3 to 6. Kyte’s solution to all this: “Making energy efficiency sexy again.”
Who needs national governments when cities can solve the world’s sustainability energy challenges? That was the rallying cry of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Christiana Figueres who are co-chairing the Covenant of Mayors on Climate & Energy, a coalition of thousands of local and regional governments tackling climate change. “The bottom line is local governments, corporate America, and individuals are the ones (pushing low-carbon action),” Bloomberg said.
"It has become fashionable and profitable to invest in renewables as they are finally starting to pay off. We are going to get more renewable and less fossil fuel and particularly less coal, " Michael Bloomberg stated.
The Microgrid Investment Accelerator, a consortium of partners trying to unlock private capital for energy access, was launched in the morning. It aims to mobilize $50 million of financing, via public-private partnerships, to bring modern energy services to under-served parts of East Africa, India and Indonesia by 2020. Facebook, Microsoft and venture capitalists at Allotrope Partners are among the key players. The South African retail chain Woolworths joined the EP100 campaign aimed at doubling energy productivity by 2020. The Global Environment Facility confirmed its support for SEforAll’s Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator, led by UNIDO and the Carbon Trust.
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This joint study looks at the potential for decarbonisation in the energy sector in G20 countries and around the world. Chapter 3, “Global Energy Transition Prospects and the Role of Renewables”, highlights findings from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
