The UN Decade of Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) was launched in the Arab region on 23 March 2015, in Amman, Jordan, during a series of events organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA).
24 March 2015: The UN Decade of Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) was launched in the Arab region on 23 March 2015, in Amman, Jordan, during a week of events organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA).
Hosted by the Jordanian Government, the launch ceremony included speeches by Jordanian Minister of Energy and Mines Resources Ibrahim Seif and representatives of UN-ESCWA and SE4ALL, and was followed by a high-level ministerial panel. Abdalla Al-Dardary, UN-ESCWA Deputy Executive Secretary, stressed that formulating a balanced energy equation in the region “requires efforts to achieve [a] rapid transition toward just and sustainable energy systems.”
Pointing to the mandate of the Decade, Minoru Takada, New York Representative and Director, SE4ALL, stated that the regional, national and local levels hold the key to succeeding in “what the [UN] General Assembly has set out to do at the global level.”
Other meetings convening during the same week in Amman included: the 10th session of the ESCWA Committee on Energy, from 22-23 March; an expert group meeting on the Water-Energy-Food Security Nexus in the Arab Region, from 24-25 March; and the 11th session of the ESCWA Committee on Water Resources, from 26-27 March.
The aim of the Committee on Energy meeting was to, inter alia, discuss: sustainable energy in the Arab region; technology adaptation policy and local renewable energy equipment manufacturing potential; and the implementation of the UN Decade on SE4ALL in the Arab region, with a focus on the post-2015 development agenda and the energy-water-food nexus. [SE4ALL Press Release] [UN-ESCWA Press Release] [IISD RS Stories on SE4ALL]