UN clean energy initiative gets new leadership

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that a new Sustainable Energy for All Partnership will now spearhead SE4All, and be led by the current World Bank Vice President and Special Envoy for Climate Change, Rachel Kyte.

Launched by Mr. Ban in 2011, SE4All is a multi-stakeholder initiative that aims to achieve three inter-linked global targets, namely to ensure universal access to modern energy services, to double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency and to double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix, all by 2030.

In addition to becoming the first Chief Executive Officer of the Sustainable Energy for All Partnership, Kyte will also take over as the Secretary-General’s new Special Representative for Sustainable Energy for All on January 1 2016.

In 2015, access to affordable and clean energy became the 7th of 17 new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that world leaders will adopt next week at a special summit at UN Headquarters. These Global Goals are intended to stimulate action over the next 15 years in areas of critical importance towards building a more equitable and sustainable world for all.

“If we are successful over the next decade or more in realizing the ambition in SDG 7, we will be successful in realizing the ambitions in many more of the goals, not least of which will be SDG 13 [climate action],” Kyle said.

“Sometimes when we talk about energy, we talk about megawatts and kilowatts […]. But this agenda is firmly rooted in the ability of a woman to seek medical care in a hospital, knowing that the lights won’t go out. This is an agenda about being able to turn the irrigation pump on for the small farmer in a desertified part of the developing world. This is about being able to put the light on, do the homework, graduate, and go on and do more, and contribute back,” she finished.