UN secretary general calls for clean energy transformation

Ban Ki-moon

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a clean energy transformation to help put the world on a more sustainable path, and emphasized that these efforts will require innovation, investment and collaboration by all partners.

He urged leaders to bring solutions and initiatives with targets, deliverables and investment plans and stressed the importance of scaling up the investments and financial flows necessary for making the transformation to a low-carbon economy.

“Achieving a clean energy transformation will need the combined efforts of governments, multilateral investment banks, private finance, civil society, the knowledge community and the private sector,” the U.N secretary general said in a keynote address at the Third Global Green Growth Forum in Copenhagen.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

In September 2011, the Secretary-General launched the Sustainable Energy for All initiative, which aims to achieve three inter-linked global targets by 2030: universal access to modern energy services; the doubling of energy efficiency; and the doubling of the share of renewable energy in the world’s energy mix.

He highlighted the fact that the world is fast approaching a triple deadline. The target date for achieving the global anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) falls at end of 2015.

World leaders have also agreed on 2015 as the year for establishing a new sustainable development framework and reaching an agreement on climate change.

“2015 thus represents an historic opportunity to set the world on a sustainable path,” he stated. “To do that we must eradicate extreme poverty and hold global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.”

To that end, Ban has proposed convening a Climate Summit next September to bring together government, business, finance and civil society leaders from around the world to mobilize political will for the climate negotiations, deliver concrete new commitments and spark “a race to the top” in climate action.

“With enlightened action, we can create jobs, improve public health, protect the environment and spur sustainable green growth. In the coming year we should all do our utmost to unlock the barriers to climate finance that exist across the global economy.”

He also noted, in the meeting, his intention to include pension fund leaders in the Climate Summit, and discussed the possibilities for using the event as a unique opportunity to leverage unprecedented financial, political and organizational capital.

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