23 October 2013: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) opened a new global center for Energy Efficiency as part of the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative. The Energy Efficiency Hub (EE Hub), in Copenhagen, Denmark, will seek to help “drastically increase” energy access, energy efficiency and renewable energy deployment.

At the launch, Ban said the world is at a “tipping point” regarding energy production, distribution and consumption. The EE Hub hopes to be at the center of efforts to double energy efficiency by 2030, one of the goals of SE4ALL and key to mitigation climate change. Created by the Danish Government, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Technical University of Denmark, the Hub aims to facilitate efforts by governments, development banks, the private sector and civil society on efficiency, and become a “one-stop shop for information, expertise and collaboration opportunities for EE stakeholders,” with a special focus on supporting developing countries.

Secretary-General Ban also spoke at a climate finance meeting with the Danish Government and large institutional investors, such as pension funds and insurance companies, during which he said participants were “very positively inclined to fully commit themselves and engage themselves in working together with the international community, and the United Nation” on reducing the carbon footprint of their investments. Ban also called attention to the Climate Summit to be convened at UN Headquarters in New York in September 2014, which he said will gather government, business, finance and civil society leaders to discuss climate change and sustainable development. [UN Press Release] [UNEP Press Release][3GF website]