UN Plans to Supply Sustainable Energy to the World by 2030

At the recent UN general assembly, the UN secretary general Ban-Ki Moon pushed his idea for the Sustainable Energy for All initiative. One of the massively ambitious goals of the initiative is to connect every single household in the world to a reliable, sustainable energy source by 2030.

Ban addressed the UN delegates, saying that “sustainable energy for all is the answer to some of the key challenges of our time – poverty, inequality, economic growth, and environmental risks.”

The initiative will be mainly focussed on third world countries where most households don’t have any access to reliable electricity. A stable electricity grid is one of the basic foundations needed to develop a strong private sector, and only then can a poor country hope to boost its economic growth.

Kandeh Yumkella, the newly appointed UN special representative for Sustainable Energy for All, said that they “have data from the World Bank indicating that in Africa, 2-3% of GDP is wiped out every year because of an unreliable energy supply or lack of energy supply.”

“In Mali and Burkina Faso, electricity costs between 30 and 50 cents per kilowatt hour, compared with four or seven cents elsewhere. At those kinds of prices, they cannot be competitive, they cannot create jobs, they will not be profitable.”

In order to achieve the goals of the Sustainable Energy for All initiative, the UN has pledged to invest between $40 and $50 billion each year into sustainable energy projects; a vast improvement from the current $9 billion a year.

By. Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com