AGECC Report: Energy for a sustainable future

AGECC calls on the United Nations system and its Member States to commit themselves to two complementary goals:

1. Ensure universal access to modern energy services by 2030. The global community
should aim to provide access for the 2-3 billion people excluded from modern energy services, to
a basic minimum threshold of modern energy services for both consumption and productive
uses.6 Access to these modern energy services must be reliable and affordable,7 sustainable and,
where feasible, from low-GHG-emitting energy sources. The aim of providing universal access
should be to create improved conditions for economic take-off, contribute to attaining the
MDGs, and enable the poorest of the poor to escape poverty. All countries have a role to play: the
high-income countries can contribute by making this goal a development assistance priority
and catalyzing financing; the middle-income countries can contribute by sharing relevant expertise,
experience and replicable good practices; and the low-income countries can help create the
right local institutional, regulatory and policy environment for investments to be made, including
by the private sector.

2. Reduce global energy intensity by 40 per cent by 2030. Developed and developing countries
alike need to build and strengthen their capacity to implement effective policies, marketbased
mechanisms, business models, investment tools and regulations with regard to energy
use. Achieving this goal will require the international community to harmonize technical standards
for key energy-consuming products and equipment, to accelerate the transfer of know-how
and good practices, and to catalyze increased private capital flows into investments in energy efficiency.

The successful adoption of these measures would reduce global energy intensity by about
2.5 per cent per year – approximately double the historic rate.
Delivering these two goals is key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, improving the
quality and sustainability of macroeconomic growth, and helping to reduce carbon emissions
over the next 20 years.

There are also important synergies between these two goals. Modern energy services are more
efficient than biomass, and the acceleration of energy access will also contribute to a more rapid
reduction in net energy intensity. Increased energy efficiency allows existing and new infrastructure
to reach more people by freeing up capital resources to invest in enhanced access to
modern energy services. Similarly, energy-efficient appliances and equipment make energy services
more affordable for consumers – residential, commercial and industrial. While there is no
agreement as yet on the minimum target for universal energy access, the initial steps do not
entail significant climate impacts. For example, IEA’s recommended threshold of 100 kWh per
person per year, even if delivered through the current fossil fuel-dominated mix of generation
technologies, will increase GHG emissions by only around 1.3 per cent above current levels.
The impact of this increased energy consumption can be reduced through energy efficiency and
a transition to a stronger reliance on cleaner sources of energy, including renewable energy and
low-GHG emitting fossil fuel technologies, such as a shift from coal to natural gas. While each
goal is worth pursuing independently, there will be clear synergies in pursuing them as part of an
integrated strategy.

Although ambitious, these goals are achievable, partly because of technology innovations and
emerging business models, and partly because of an ongoing shift in international funding priorities
towards clean energy and other energy issues. There are also precedents for the widespread
provision of both energy access (e.g., in China, Viet Nam and Brazil), and for dramatic
improvements in energy efficiency (e.g., in Japan, Denmark, Sweden, California and China)
that demonstrate the feasibility of achieving both goals.

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