The meeting entitled “Review of SDG implementation and interrelations among goals: Discussion on SDG 13 – Climate action including the link to the Climate Action Summit and six action portfolios,” was convened this morning under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council’s High Level Political Forum. The purpose of the gathering was to review progress towards SDG 13, and to demonstrate the inter-linkages between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. The structure of the meeting consisted of remarks by four resource persons, and five lead discussants, with intermittent comments from member states and other stakeholders.
Renewable Energy
Dialogue on Energy Interconnection
During the dialogue between the committee and the non-governmental organization Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization, the representative described his organization’s mission, which was to promote clean energy development all over the world, which also supports economic growth and job generation. The organization focuses on three main areas of cooperation: research and studies; information and personal exchanges; and reciprocal invitations to seminars and meetings.
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Apart from collaborating with globally renowned entities such as Bloomberg Financial, Boston University and also Columbia University on co-research projects regarding energy sustainability, the speaker also explained the organization’s intent to co-host an event with the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) later this year, which focuses on energy interconnection in Latin America.
They have also been an active participant in the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)’s Environment Assembly, as they believe in the presence of mutual interest and objectives towards global sustainability between their organization and the UNEP.
Apart from the dialogue, the committee also processed applications for consultative status from numerous organizations, with the final verdict of recommending 11 groups for special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council and deferred action on 85 others.
Meeting: Economic and Social Council – “Dialogue concerning Energy Interconnection”
Date/Location: Thursday, May 23rd, 2019; 15:00-18:00; Economics and Social Council Chamber, United Nations Headquarters, New York, NY
Speakers: Panelist, Representatives from the United States, Mexico, Speaker representing the Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization
Written By: WIT Representative Bryan Yiu
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Committee on Innovation, Competitiveness and Public-Private Partnership, Team of Specialists on Innovation and Competitiveness Policies (CICPPP)
The CICPPP reconvened at the UNOG this week to revisit international and regional innovation, with a particular focus on sustainable technology invention and deployment. Initially, the conference debated emerging global CO2 emissions data and its implications for climate change. In addressing climate change holistically, its broader knock-on effects on a variety of industries was presented. The agriculture, water, energy, transport health and urban development sectors were concentrated on. Only the transport sector noted potential benefits if artic ice recession reduced shipping costs through the region. The conference moved to debate efficacious and cost-effective policy adaptation tools currently being utilized in various states. These tools include improving pricing signals, reforming experimental and standardization regulations, restructuring financing tools, introducing novel global insurance schemes, galvanizing R&D through incentivization and avoiding duplicating policy reform.
The afternoon session demonstrated a shift in focus towards how to track and evaluate innovation progress in nations and across sectors. One suggestion emphasised the value of regional rather than global innovation indices. Importantly, global rating measure can dilute local innovation successes. Regional index schemes would increase regional policy index dialogue, helping policy makers uncover dimensions previously overlooked by an insular approach to policy reform. Comparing innovation inputs to outputs can offer insight into national innovation effectiveness. Creating reliable metrics in this domain would help uncover what underpins an integrated national policy framework that effectively unites a melange of innovation-policy tools.
Finally, many states and bodies, namely Tajikistan, Ukraine, Sweden and Shiffer Institute of Advanced Studies shed light on the difficulties many actors face in sizing representative innovation metrics and that such innovation indices can potentially distort real economic output perspectives. CICPPP aims to deploy a pilot program in Georgia to assess the value of innovation indicators. Specifically, increased transparency and cross-border dialogue regarding innovation strategy would increase the value of relative quantitative and qualitative analyses.
Date and Time: Saturday, 3 November 2018
Location: Salle XI, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Speakers: Ms. Sedef Yavuz Noyan (Chairman, CICPPP), Mr. Rafis Abazov (Vice Chairperson), Mr. Nikita Ponomarenko (Vice Chairperson), Jakob Fexer (Project Manager of the SEE Competitiveness Outlook, OECD South East Europe Division)
Countries represented: Georgia, Armenia, United Kingdom, Tajikistan, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Sweden, Poland
Bodies represented: UNIDO, UNCTAD, WIPO, Shiffers Institute of Advanced Studies
Author: WIT Representative, Farri Gaba
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HLPF 2018 Side Event: Off-grid Renewable Energy Solutions For Universal Modern Energy Access
Off-grid renewable energy solutions are key pillars to enable access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The HLPF 2018 Side Event invited private energy sectors to detail how evolving renewables technologies could better realise SDG#7.
First, the panellists provoked the latest global and regional insights on developing off-grid renewable energy solutions. They underscored the importance of promoting growth in off-grid renewable energy deployment equally around the world.
Second, the panellists highlighted the challenges of developing off-grid renewable energy solutions. On the education side, Ms. Jane Oyugi emphasised the imminent need to provide professional training to technical expertise in energy renewables. On the finance side, Ms. Sarah Alexander focused on the provision of long-term financing capital for customers to use off-grid renewable energy in less developed countries. On the policy side, Mr. Eco Matser stressed the implementation of leadership programmes in policymaking in off-grid renewable energy industries.
Third, the panellists referred to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and outlined the benefits of providing access to affordable off-grid renewable energy. They focused on how access to affordable off-grid renewables could better realise SDG#2, SDG#11 and SDG#16. At last, they reached the consensus that off-grid renewables are innovative solutions to alleviate the shortage of fossil fuels around the world at present.
Meeting:
HLPF 2018 Side Event: Off-grid renewable energy solutions for universal modern energy access
Date/Location:
Thursday 12th July 2018; 13:15 to 14:30; Conference Room 12, United Nations Headquarters, New York, NY
Speaker(s):
Dr. Rabia Ferroukhi, Deputy-Director of Knowledge, Policy and Finance, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
Mr. Divyam Nagpal, Associate Programme Officer, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
Dr. Minoru Takada, Team Leader (Sustainable Energy), UN DESA
Ms. Sarah Alexander, Senior Advisor, SELCO
Mr. Ram Prasad Dhital, Executive Director, Alternative Energy Promotion Centre, Nepal
Mr. Eli Michell-Larsen, Board of Director, SunFarmer
Mr. Eco Matser, Global Lead on Energy Access and Climate, Hivos
Ms. Jane Oyugi, Co-founder and CEO, Sustenersol
Written by: WIT Representative LAU Chun Ki
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