Sustainable energy access for all and the post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda
29 November 2013
Integrating climate change into the post-2015 agenda: HOW and WHY?
With special focus on sustainable energy access for all
Time and Date: 27 Nov 2013, 1.15-2.30 pm,
Location: Conference Room 7, UN HQ, New York
This side event during the 5th session of the Open Working Group on SDGs will tackle two crucial topics that are prerequisite to eradicating poverty and achieving sustainable development: climate change and sustainable access to energy for all. Climate change is an existential threat that will continue to disproportionately affect the poorest and most vulnerable people and places, impacting negatively on those least responsible for the climate crisis.
Securing universal access to modern energy services and transitioning energy systems away from fossil fuels will central to solving both the climate change crisis and the global poverty crisis. Without addressing the causes of climate change and all its impacts, comprehensively, goals on eradicating poverty – including any goal on energy access for people in poverty – will be ineffective and short term, and fail to ensure sustainable development.
It is essential to start finding concrete ways to integrate climate protection, energy access and poverty reduction in a holistic development framework. During this side event, the panellists will outline government, UN and civil society perspectives on such concrete ways, followed by a short questions and answers session.
Panel
David Hallam, Special Envoy on post 2015, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Janine Felson, Ambassador of Belize and special adviser to the UN PGA
David O’Connor, Chief, Policy and Analysis Branch, Division for Sustainable Development. UN-DESA
Minoru Takada, Senior Policy Adviser, Sustainable Energy for All
Wael Hmaidan, Director, CAN-I
Bernadette Fischler, Post-2015 Policy Analyst, CAFOD, Co-Chair of Beyond 2015
Chair
Dominic White, Chair of Bond
RSVP to bfischler@cafod.org.uk