The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) Permanent Observer to the UN, in New York, Amb. Qazi Shaukat Fareed, participated at the briefing on “Sustainable Energy for All – progress made, new leadership, long-term arrangements, SDG7 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, held on 16 September 2015.
The event was addressed by UN Secretary General H.E. Ban Ki-moon together with Mr. Jan Eliasson, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Ms. Rachel Kyte, Special Representative-designate of the Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All and incoming CEO of the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) Partnership, and Mr. Kandeh Yumkella outgoing Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All and outgoing CEO of SE4All.
The Head of the United Nations emphasized the importance of energy as the golden thread that connects economic growth, social equity, and a healthy environment.
Within the framework of this initiative Sustainable Energy for All Country Action Agendas and Investment Prospectuses are already being prepared in more than 30 developing countries. Furthermore, a network of regional and thematic Sustainable Energy for All hubs has been established within existing institutions, including several regional development banks, to give the movement a truly global reach.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moom added that to fully realize the power of Sustainable Energy for All, solid long-term institutional arrangements are required.
To this end, the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative will now be spearheaded by an international not-for-profit organization, the Sustainable Energy for All Partnership, which will continue to build momentum towards sustainable energy for all and the attainment of SDG7.
Launched in 2011, Sustainable Energy for All has mobilized thousands of partners, including governments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector, providing a strong global framework for implementation, with the presentation of solutions for how to mobilize 120 billion dollars every year.
PAM had also participated at the Sustainable Energy for All event in 2012, at the end of its first year of activity. PAM Rapporteur on Energy, Sen. Lhou Lmarbouh (Morocco) had highlighted the role of PAM as a platform for enhanced regional cooperation in the energy sector and how the Assembly has made the development of renewable energy a priority area for its actions in the Euro-Mediterranean region. “This plan of action is meant to meet the urgent challenges of the Mediterranean populations at the environmental, economic and social levels’, Sen. Lmarbouh had said.
Since the consumption of electricity in the Mediterranean has doubled over the last decades, it was imperative that the necessary measures are taken to ensure energy security and PAM’s strategy remains that to promote legislation and regulation reform in order to provide a wider and more equitable access to energy resources. For this to happen, the sector needs innovative financial mechanisms, including public-private partnerships, an integrated regional approach, the diversification and the improvement of energy quality and production, all elements that can facilitate long term development and the socio-economic progress of the Mediterranean region.
The role of national Parliaments is crucial in assisting investments in the renewable energy sector. Already in 2012, at the end of a Conference on Energy held in Ouarzazate, Morocco, the conclusions called upon PAM to coordinate the establishment of a Mediterranean Community of Energy, aimed at gathering all the stakeholders, including Parliaments, governments, the industry and investors. On that occasion a Core Group, made up of international organizations, among which, inter alia, PAM, the EBRD, MED-TSO and MEDREG, IEA and IRENA, was set up with the aim to prepare a road map and a series of activities to implement the conclusions reached in Ouarzazate.