NEW YORK, MAY 4 – The European Union, Finland, Honduras, Italy and Poland have joined the Member States serving as Global Champions for the UN High-level Dialogue on Energy, as preparations accelerate for the summit-level meeting to take place in September 2021, convened by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Other Member States playing this important role are: Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Germany, Iceland, India, Japan, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Morocco, Nauru, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Portugal, the Russian Federation, Spain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
They will also play a key role in helping to mobilize voluntary commitments and actions in the form of Energy Compacts that Member States, businesses, cities and other stakeholders will present as inputs to the High-level Dialogue. UN-Energy, the UN’s inter-agency mechanism for collaboration in the energy field, is supporting the mobilization and tracking of the Energy Compacts, and an intensive series of workshops is underway to inform key constituencies.
Leading up to the High-level Dialogue, the Global Champions will also co-host ministerial-level thematic forums in late June, where a number of Energy Compacts are expected to be announced. The forums will base their work on reports from five technical working groups, which are nearing finalization, each suggesting key actions needed to achieve clean energy for all in their relevant thematic area.
A list of the Global Champions by thematic focus area and other information is available online.
The thirty Global Champions will spearhead advocacy on the five thematic focus areas decided for the Dialogue, with the aim of accelerating action to achieve clean and affordable energy for all by 2030 (Sustainable Development Goal 7) and net-zero emissions by 2050, a top climate action goal for the UN.
Of the five themes, three focus on advancing substantive progress on: 1) energy access; 2) energy transition; and 3) enabling the SDGs through inclusive, just energy transitions. The last two themes, which are cross-cutting, focus on means to achieve those crucial objectives through 4) innovation, technology and data; and 5) finance and investment.
Italy, along with the Dominican Republic, Netherlands, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, will work on the finance and investment focus area. This theme will focus on how public and private finance and investment can be mobilized and leveraged to achieve the 2025 Milestones, SDG7 and carbon neutrality, taking also into consideration enabling mechanisms such as the fiscal response to COVID-19, fossil fuel subsidy reform; green investment regulation; risk management and insurance. (@OnuItalia)
