For information only - not an official document
UNIS/OUS/032
7 June 2010
New Report Outlines Way Forward to Monitor and Evaluate Progress Towards Universal Energy Access
VIENNA, 7 June (UN Information Service) - A new paper published by the Earth Institute at Columbia University provides a building block for the design and application of tools to monitor and evaluate progress towards universal energy access.
The paper, Measuring Energy Access: Supporting a Global Target, co-authored by international experts, including from UNIDO, outlines a set of options and calls for establishing systematic measurement and reporting with regard to energy poverty.
It represents a small, but concrete step towards implementing the recommendations of the United Nations Secretary-General's Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change (AGECC) presented in April. One of the AGECC's key recommendations was for the provision of universal access to energy by 2030.
The new Earth Institute paper discusses the associated benefits to assuring effective national policy-making as well as effective international cooperation.
In addition, it calls on the international community to play an active role in building capacity and providing resources to increase the quality and quantity of data. The report suggests piloting a measurement and reporting programme in 5-7 countries to provide insights for a wider roll-out.
The paper says that the UN is well placed to help take this work forward in partnership with the International Energy Agency (IEA), and other organizations. To this end, the UN's interagency mechanism for energy, UN-Energy, is specifically designed to help coordinate cross-cutting issues, and would benefit from such a role.
Both the new Earth Institute paper and the AGECC report are available here: www.unido.org/index.php?id=1000598
* *** *
For further information, please contact:
Mikhail
Evstafyev
UNIDO Press Secretary
Mobile: (+43-699) 1459-7329
Email:
m.evstafyev@unido.org
Internet:
www.unido.org
