For information only - not an official document
UNIS/OUS/111
18 November 2011
OFID Hosts Meeting of UN Secretary-General's High-level Group on Sustainable Energy for All
VIENNA, 18 November (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) - The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) is hosting a meeting of a high-level group tasked with implementing the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's new energy access initiative.
The initiative, launched in September in New York, seeks to achieve the goal of Sustainable Energy for All by 2030 by meeting three inter linked global targets: universal access to modern energy services; doubling energy efficiency; and doubling the share of renewable energy in world's energy supply.
The year 2012 has been designated by the United Nations General Assembly as the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All.
Participants at the three-day meeting in Vienna will discuss a range of topics relating to the launch of the energy campaign, ways to further engage the private sector and kick-start a "green energy revolution".
The high-level group is co-chaired by the Director-General of the U.N. Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Kandeh K. Yumkella, and the Chairman of Bank of America Corporation, Charles O. Holliday. It is comprised of representatives of governments, the private sector, international organizations and civil society. Together they are forming new public-private partnerships and an action agenda to be delivered at the Rio+20 summit in June 2012 in Brazil.
The Director-General of OFID, Suleiman J. Al-Herbish, who is also a member of the
high-level group, said OFID was proud to host the meeting at its headquarters in Vienna. "Today, we are making a major coordinated effort towards our goal of providing universal access to modern energy services and raising living standards and economic opportunities for the poorest. This is in line with the mandate which OFID received from the Heads of State of our Member Countries at the Riyadh Summit in 2007," he said.
"For the last 35 Years, OFID has been supporting, on a South-South solidarity basis, developing countries across the world, particularly the least developed," added Al-Herbish.
UNIDO Director-General Yumkella said: "The Sustainable Energy for All initiative is launched at a time of great economic uncertainty, but also at a time of an emerging consensus on the need to act decisively and cohesively towards global challenges, such as poverty, climate change, human security and sustainable development. Energy is central to each and every global challenge we face. The decisions on energy we make today will shape the world we will live in tomorrow. Rio+20 represents a unique opportunity for our interdependent world to secure renewed political commitment to sustainable development. The energy revolution must be a cornerstone of that commitment."
Yumkella thanked the Government of Austria for its continued support and OFID for its leadership in hosting the meeting.
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For more information on OFID, please contact:
Mauro
Hoyer
Director of the Department of Information
Telephone: (+43-1) 51564-144
Email: m.hoyer[at]ofid.org
For more information on UNIDO, please contact:
Mikhail
Evstafyev
UNIDO Advocacy and Communications Coordinator
Telephone: (+43-1) 26026-5021
Mobile: (+43-699) 1459-7329
Email M.Evstafyev[at]unido.org
