Government and Private Sector Partners Mobilize Finance to Halve Energy Poverty

EU and US preview commitments towards Sustainable Energy for All (United Nations, New York, 22 September) -- The day before the Climate Summit, partners of the Sustainable Energy for All initiative have previewed new commitments to catalyze investment to provide hundreds of millions of people with access to sustainable energy services. The cooperation among Sustainable Energy for All, the European Union and US Power Africa towards reducing by half the 1.3 billion “energy poor” people in the world is a significant milestone towards achieving universal energy access by 2030. Today, 1.3 billion people, or nearly one in five globally, continue to lack electricity. Twice as many, 2.6 billion people, still rely on wood, charcoal, animal or crop waste or other solid fuels to cook their food and heat their homes. An assessment by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the Brazilian National Development Bank and the World Bank Group confirms the potential and presents a concrete plan to raise $120 billion in additional investments that will contribute to halving energy poverty and promoting sustainable energy solutions. “We have six concrete instruments that have been developed. One example is to scale up green bond finance instruments, from the current $23 billion a year to maybe $50 billion or $60 billion a year,” said Kandeh Yumkella, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Chief Executive for Sustainable Energy for All, ahead of the Climate Summit. The European Union has pledged an initial funding of 3 billion Euros to leverage between 15 billion and 30 billion Euros over the next six years, to address energy poverty. “Sustainable energy is essential for fuelling growth and development,” said European Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs. "Without energy, factories cannot function, schools cannot be lit up and families cannot cook, and this is a situation that many people are still facing today. That is why the EU’s commitment to helping developing countries to provide access to sustainable energy services to 500 million people by 2030, as pledged at the EU Sustainable Energy for All Summit in Brussels in 2012, is as strong as ever. Today, we are joining forces with European and African countries that have decided to take the lead in the fight against energy poverty.” The European Union, supported by individual EU countries (Austria, France, Luxemburg, Portugal, Spain) and Norway, concretized plans with Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Rwanda and Togo in the margins of the Climate Summit. The United States Government’s Power Africa Initiative has announced that it will connect at least 60 million household and business connections in Africa to electricity in five years, with public-private financing of $20 billion. Power Africa is signing an Aide Memoire of Cooperation Understanding with Sustainable Energy for All at the Climate Summit. “The cooperation of Power Africa and Sustainable Energy for All will galvanize U.S. partnerships with other countries and also further attract private sector interest, including international financial organizations, for our efforts to increase access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa. This agreement will also mobilize African leaders to advance regional energy transactions and expand individual country coordination," said Andrew M. Herscowitz, Coordinator for Power Africa and Trade Africa from the U.S. Government. “Joining forces will mean that thanks to innovative financial instruments and commitments made by the EU and the US, we have a plan to reduce energy poverty by half in accordance with our Sustainable Energy for All objectives,” said Mr. Yumkella. The three objectives of the Secretary-General's Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) initiative are to, 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. Achieving the three objectives is consistent with the target of keeping global warming below 2-degrees C as compared to pre-industrial levels. The live and archived webcast of the 22 September press conference featuring these announcements can be found at webtv.un.org. Contacts: SEforALL: Pragati Pascale, e-mail p.pascale@se4all.org, tel +1 917-744-2114; Monika Froehler, e-mail m.froehler@se4all.org, tel +1 646-693-0278 EC: Maria Sanchez, e-mail maria.sanchez-aponte@ec.europa.eu, tel +32 2 298 10 35; Alexandre Polack, e-mail Alexandre.POLACK@ec.europa.eu, tel +32 460 79 06 77 US/USAID: Adi Raval, e-mail araval@usaid.gov, tel +1 202-712-5235; US/State: Mark E. Kissel, e-mail KisselME@state.gov, tel +1 202-647-1047