SEforALL spotlights solutions during UN General Assembly: Energy Transition and Investment Plans, Energy Compacts, and more
This year’s UN General Assembly (UNGA) featured a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit to review progress and accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The summit produced a Political Declaration from world leaders, who outlined their shared commitment to create a sustainable and inclusive world by 2030. This included reaffirmation of the need to realize “affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy” as called for by SDG7.
Based on the declaration, it’s clear that sustainable energy is seen as pivotal to fighting climate change and powering the development of low- and middle-income countries. But as Leo Varadkar, Prime Minister of Ireland, stressed last week, the declaration must become “more than a piece of paper.” Bold and swift action, particularly finance is needed to achieve all the SDGs, including SDG7.
Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) is committed to enabling this action, and we see the UNGA as a critical platform for doing so. Our unique relationship with the UN brings us access to world leaders and decision-makers, allowing us to highlight opportunities and solutions for them to support and engage with.
Here is a summary of our main activities in and around this year’s UNGA.
Establishing a plan for net-zero emissions in Ghana
The launch of Ghana’s Energy Transition and Investment Plan during a Global Africa Business Initiative event on the sidelines of the UNGA showed countries value these plans as a solution to attract investment in their energy, climate and development goals.
Developed by the Government of Ghana and SEforALL, the Ghana plan marks the country’s commitment to fighting climate change and fostering economic development in tandem. It details a credible pathway for how Ghana can achieve net-zero energy-related carbon emissions by 2060, which is ten years faster than previously committed under the country’s Energy Transition Framework.
The government will use the plan as its main tool to engage the international community around its energy transition and to attract investment across various sectors of Ghana’s economy.
This is the second national Energy Transition and Investment Plan developed by SEforALL to support countries' energy transition efforts. Nigeria launched a similar plan last year, which has already attracted more than USD 3.5 billion in investment.
Meanwhile, Kenya and Barbados are also currently working with SEforALL on developing Energy Transition and Investment Plans.
Securing commitments through Energy Compacts
As a partner in UN-Energy, we showcased Energy Compacts as a High-Impact Initiative for achieving SDG7 during a session on SDG Acceleration Day. The growing impacts of these voluntary commitments on SDG7 were also captured in detail in the Energy Compacts Annual Progress Report, which was launched the same day.
The report shows that there are now 193 Energy Compacts and that the total investment pledged towards SDG7 under them is more than USD 1 trillion. Commitments made thus far will enhance electricity access to 697 million people, clean cooking access to 315 million, deploy 1,185 GW of clean energy capacity, and achieve 59,753 GWh of energy savings.
However, the report acknowledges that while progress has been made, there is a need for acceleration, especially in achieving clean cooking access, which has seen relatively slower growth, and in fulfilling commitments.
SEforALL will continue to work with our UN-Energy partners to secure new Energy Compacts, attract new signatories to current compacts, and advocate for existing signatories to increase their ambition.
To this end, we participated in sessions to promote two specific Energy Compacts that are quickly becoming global movements. One session focused on the 24/7 Carbon Free Energy Compact, which is a growing coalition of companies and organizations working together to ensure their electricity use is 100 percent carbon-free.
Another centred on the Gender and Energy Compact, which is a multi-stakeholder coalition of partners – led by ENERGIA, GWNET and UNIDO – that are working to ensure the global energy transition brings equal benefits to women.
Unlocking finance for powering healthcare
Electrification of health institutions can help meet numerous SDGs (SDG7 on energy, SDG3 on health, and SDG13 on climate). But at least USD 5 billion is required to electrify health institutions in most low-and middle-income countries.
As part of our Powering Healthcare activities, SEforALL, the Health and Energy Platform of Action (HEPA) hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Health Electrification and Telecommunications Alliance (HETA) hosted by Power Africa convened a private roundtable to discuss key issues related to mobilizing climate finance for sustainable electrification of health facilities.
One of the key points emphasized was that in addition to climate mitigation, climate adaptation should be a critical component of strengthening health infrastructure and be reflected in discussions with donors and proposals for raising climate finance.
There is a clear opportunity for climate finance to improve the health landscape in low- and middle-income countries, and participants shared best practices for applying for financing from climate funds and identified barriers and opportunities to start leveraging climate finance opportunities for health facility electrification. They also agreed to champion campaigns and announcements on powering healthcare at future forums, such as COP 28 in Dubai.
Setting a course for our work over the next three years
With so many partners assembled in New York for the UNGA, we convened them for the launch of our new 2024-2026 Strategic Plan, following more than six months of consultations with our valued partners, funders and other stakeholders.
This new plan builds on existing bodies of work, and applies lessons learned, to position us to expand our support and impact on just and equitable energy transitions. The plan is anchored by three pillars – 1) global advocacy and knowledge dissemination 2) scalable solutions and platforms 3) tailored country support – which together address the most intractable challenges to progress on energy transitions.
During the launch of the new Strategic Plan, we were honoured by the Government of Panama, who awarded us with the Energy Transition Award for our promotion of sustainable development in Panama and other countries in the Global South.
Building momentum into COP28
With COP28 just around the corner, SEforALL is preparing to once again engage with global leadership and build momentum for the above initiatives and others, as we collectively pursue a just and equitable energy transition.
For the third consecutive COP, we will be co-hosting an SDG7 Pavilion with the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, providing a critical platform to advance the intersection of energy, climate and development.