Energy in the United Nations: An Overview of UN-Energy Activities

Although UN-Energy was only recently formed, many of the current member agencies have a long successful history working in energy. In other instances, agencies are just beginning collaboration in the energy arena. This UN-Energy paper highlights not only individual agency work but also collaborative efforts made in achieving sustainable development goals. Even though UN Energy agencies had been working together before the group was formed, it was often on a project-by-project or ad-hoc basis.

Although UN-Energy was only recently formed, many of the current member agencies have a long successful history working in energy. In other instances, agencies are just beginning collaboration in the energy arena. This UN-Energy paper highlights not only individual agency work but also collaborative efforts made in achieving sustainable development goals. Even though UN Energy agencies had been working together before the group was formed, it was often on a project-by-project or ad-hoc basis. The creation of UN-Energy, and the emphasis it places on joint activities, focuses on a key mission of the JPOI— enhanced international and regional collaboration.

A number of additional joint activities by UN member agencies are on-going and/or under development. These are outlined below.

Energy Access, Renewable Energy, and Energy Efficiency

• The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) are facilitating UN-Energy Africa, which is undertaking and coordinating projects aimed at increasing energy access in Africa.

• The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is leading UN-Energy efforts to coordinate activities in bio-energy, by facilitating the implementation of an International Bioenergy Platform across the member agencies. UN-Energy is a key mechanism to advance this cooperation. Contributors include UNEP, UNDP, UNIDO, DESA, the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW). The initial topic to be tackled by UN-Energy over the period 2005-2007 is the assessment of sustainable liquid biofuels for transport. In particular, the following topical areas will be addressed: land availability; food security implications; water, fertilizers, and other inputs; employment, gender, and other social implications; biodiversity and other environmental implications; and international biofuels trading.

• UN-Energy agencies are participating in mapping exercises on energy access and renewable energy to determine where there are synergies among agencies to facilitate cooperation. The UN-Energy secretariat is coordinating the energy access mapping and the UN-Energy secretariat and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) are leading the renewable energy review. In both cases, information collected will be organized into a matrix format with supporting analytical text. The mapping efforts will also be translated into a Web-based tool.

Policy Guidance, Capacity Building, and Awareness

• UNDP is developing a set of tools to assist countries in integrating energy into national poverty reduction strategies and other development planning activities at the nationallevel. The tools are being developed as part of UNDP’s support to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to devise national strategies and investment plans for increasing access to energy services. The tools include energy needs assessments and costing.

• The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is working with DESA, FAO, UNIDO and UNEP on a project—Tools for Policy Integration at the National Level. This project is developing and applying models that will assist in analyzing policy options for increasing the use of renewable energy. The models are being applied and tested in two countries— China and Ghana—and efforts are coordinated with the UN country teams. A report entitled Assessing Policy Options for Increasing the Use of Renewable Energy for Sustainable Development: Modelling Energy Scenarios for Ghana, which describes the Ghana application, will be released and presented at the CSD-14.

• The regional commissions conduct on-going capacity building and awareness on energy issues, including renewable energy, energy efficiency, and cleaner fossil fuels.