Sustainable energy transition to be at core of Climate Action Summit
The transition to clean and sustainable energy systems is critical to address climate change - and why it is emerging as a core issue at this year’s Climate Action Summit hosted by UN Secretary-General, António Guterres.
The Summit, which will take place at the UN Headquarters in New York City on 23 September 2019, is focused on boosting ambition and accelerating progress towards achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. It aims at moving forward initiatives in nine interdependent tracks – including the Energy Transition Track which is led by the governments of Denmark and Ethiopia and supported by Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL).
Plans, not speeches
Since announcing the Summit last year, the Secretary-General has called on all national leaders to come with concrete, realistic “plans not speeches” that will enhance their countries nationally determined contributions (NDCs) by 2020 under the Paris Agreement. These plans must be in line with reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45% over the next decade, and to net zero emissions by 2050.
The energy sector plays a huge role within this transformation. Approximately 80% of global CO2 emissions comes from the energy sector, and is it estimated that renewable energy and energy efficiency alone can bring about more than 90% of the energy-related CO2 emission reductions needed.
The Energy Transition track focuses on the opportunities and challenges in accelerating a sustainable energy transition that leaves no one behind and supports faster progress on climate change. This includes boosting renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy storage, as well as access and renewed innovation in mobilizing energy transition investments.
