High-level policy-makers from around the world met in Vancouver, Canada from May 27-29 for the 10th Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) and fourth Mission Innovation (MI) Ministerial. CEO and UN SRSG Rachel Kyte gave three keynote addresses during the summit. During a CEM plenary, Kyte urged energy ministers to recognize and prioritize energy efficiency as critical to the energy transition and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. To the ministers attending MI, she implored them to raise their collective ambition to match the scale of the energy and climate challenges we face. She also provided the keynote address at the Women in Clean Energy Breakfast hosted by the Canadian government. Here, she stressed the need for disaggregated data to really understand who in the world lacks energy access, the potential of the clean energy transformation to lift up women around the world, and the significance of initiatives like Equal by 30 for enabling gender equality in the energy sector. As such, she announced that SEforALL has joined Equal by 30, which is a public commitment by public and private sector organizations to work towards equal pay, equal leadership and equal opportunities for women in the clean energy sector by 2030.
On 23 May, CEO and SRSG Rachel Kyte gave a keynote at the Open Ministerial Session of the ITF Summit in Leipzig, Germany. The transport sector consumes about 19% of global energy use and contributes 23% of energy-related CO2 emissions. What’s more, transport has the highest growth of CO2 emissions of any sector. Decarbonizing the transport sector is critical if we are to meet commitments from Paris Agreement and stay within the 1.5 degree target.
CEO and SRSG Rachel Kyte met with UN Secretary-General António Guterres to provide a briefing and insight on the findings of the 2019 Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report released on May 22, 2019 and an update on planning for his Climate Action Summit taking place in September. Kyte serves on the steering committee for the Secretary-General’s Climate Summit and SEforALL is the supporting institution for the Energy Transition Track. The Tracking SDG7 report provides the international community with the data to assess progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7).