CET contributes to United Nations SDG7 Policy Briefs
In July 2018, the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) at the UN headquarters in New York will review global progress on Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7). Over the past few months, CET has been among 50 organisations internationally that have provided inputs to this process, creating a set of policy briefs related to SDG7 and its interlinkages with other SDGs.
Main content
Sustainable Development Goal 7 aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030.
The UN Department for Social and Economic Affairs convened a multi-stakeholder Technical Advisory Group on SDG7 to support the review process. The resultant 27 policy briefse were presented in draft form at the SDG7 Global Conference in Bangkok in February 2018 and opened for public consultation. The policy briefs were launched in published form on 18 April 2018, as a report titled ‘Accelerating SDG7 achievement: Policy Briefs in Support of the First SDG7 Review at the UN High-Level Political Forum 2018’.
CET has contributed to two of the policy briefs. Policy Brief 8 on ‘Interlinkages among Energy, Poverty and Inequalities’ was developed by UNDP and CET, in collaboration with UNESCAP and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It calls for using multiple tiers to measure energy access, pushes for policies that de-risk renewable energy uptake, and emphasises multi-scalar sociotechnical and political economic drivers of the distribution and quality of energy access. Democratising the energy sector requires making it more responsive and accountable to people’s needs.
CET also provided inputs to Policy Brief 24 on ‘Energy Sector Transformation: Decentralized Renewable Energy for Universal Energy Access’, which was led by BMZ Germany, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, the International Renewable Energy Agency and the World Bank. Being part of a process with such large and experienced partners across the world was an insightful and enriching experience. In contrast to our research which often requires measured progress, this engagement was fast-paced and gave us a welcome challenge to respond to crucial questions with requisite urgency.
Here is the announcement of the launch event and the Policy Briefs are available directly here or via the Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform. Our Policy Briefs feature on pages 63-68 and 183-188 of the report on accelerating SDG7 achievement.