Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL), an initiative of the United Nations, will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Gujarat Government on January 12 during the ongoing Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit.
It aims at establishing a framework for collaboration between SE4ALL and the State Government on activities that would support the body’s objective to make sustainable energy accessible for all, said Mohinder Gulati, Chief Operating Officer of the Vienna-based SE4ALL, here on Friday. SE4ALL is a partner in the biennial Vibrant Gujarat event this year.
“Through the MoU, we will try to provide technical support to Gujarat for energy efficiency accelerators, and then to the other states as well.”
He said 15 per cent of global population (about one billion people), including 250 million in India, currently have no access to electricity and 2.6 billion lack modern cooking facilities, as they depend on polluting solid fuel. In order to provide them access to sustainable energy sources by the targeted 2030, the world will have to double annual investments on energy from the current $ 350-370 billion. This includes increasing annual investments from the existing $9 billion to $45 billion for new electricity consumers, particularly in Africa.
“We are trying to mobilise $150 billion annually for augmenting use of renewable energy sources, which comprise 18% of all energy sources.”
In order to make technology for sustainable energy affordable, SE4ALL’s emphasis would be on increasing investments in research and development.
SE4ALL is a multi-stakeholder partnership between governments, the private sector, and civil society and has three interlinked objectives to be achieved by 2030: ensure universal access to modern energy services, double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency and double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.
The UN General Assembly (UNGA) had unanimously declared 2014-24 as the Decade of Sustainable Energy for All.