Your Excellency, President of the General Assembly,
Your Excellency, Amb. FU,
Excellencies, dear UN colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Guests,
It is an honour to be here with you today to discuss the vital role of energy in driving progress across all Sustainable Development Goals. Let me show a few thought from UN DESA.
With only six years left to the deadline for achieving the SDGs, we must face the fact that there is insufficient progress across the board. Of the 135 assessable SDG targets, only 17 per cent are on track, and progress on over one-third has stalled or even regressed.
To get back on track we must leverage synergies across sectors that will have the greatest impact on accelerating the achievement of the 2030 Agenda. This is where our attention to energy becomes key.
SDG 7 is one of the goals with high co-benefits in other areas of sustainable development. If done right, development in the area of energy can bring cross-cutting benefit with limited trade-offs for vulnerable populations.
But there is much work to be done.
In 2022, 685 million people remained without electricity, and 2.1 billion people continued to rely on harmful cooking fuels. And for the first time in a decade, we are seeing a reversal in energy access. This negative trend demands immediate action.
We must urgently ramp up energy access, but we must also ensure that we keep our commitment to net-zero squarely in focus.
Without accelerated transitions to cleaner and renewable energy systems, the world will drift further away from the goal of 1.5 degrees and closer to climate catastrophe.
Both the Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly have called us to take action and lead on sustainable energy.
We need unprecedented cooperation, bold leadership, and significant financial investment to reduce emissions, protect vulnerable communities, and transition to clean energy.
We have to respond to these imperatives with decisive action. This will require strengthened political will and scaled-up multi-stakeholder partnerships.
Efforts by GEIDCO and others to improve the interconnection of global energy infrastructure can significantly contribute to these efforts by accelerating the development of clean energy worldwide, while reducing the costs of energy services.
As we look ahead, we welcome key upcoming opportunities to advance this cause. The Summit of the Future in September presents a once-in-a-generation chance to drive multilateral solutions and reinforce our commitment to sustainable development.
COP 29 will continue tracking commitments made under the Global Renewable and Energy Efficiency Pledge. And the new NDCs, currently under development, are a huge opportunity to advance just, inclusive and equitable energy transition.
It will be imperative that we leverage these platforms to galvanize political momentum, forge innovative partnerships, and mobilize the financial resources needed to meet our goals.
Let us work together to harness the power of energy to create a future that is equitable, resilient, and inclusive for all.
Thank you.