These thematic forums will bring together ministers from national governments and leaders from business, cities, civil society and other key stakeholders over five days (virtually), to mobilize actions as a major milestone on the road to the UN High-level Dialogue on Energy.
The preparatory process began in Feb 2021, focusing on five themes: “energy access”, “energy transition”, “enabling SDGs through inclusive, just energy transitions”, “innovation, technology and data”, and “finance and investment”.
IIASA Deputy Director Leena Srivastava and IIASA Emeritus Scholar Nebojsa Nakicenovic are both members of Technical Working Group 3, "Enabling SDGs through Inclusive, Just Energy Transitions”. A report detailing recommendations for action needed on this priority theme will be officially launched on the 24 June 2021. This report, along with the four other thematic reports will comprise a global roadmap for achieving affordable and clean energy for all by 2030, on the road to net-zero emissions by 2050.
Srivistava and researchers from the IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment Program (ECE) will participate in a number of side events relating to climate change and reaching SDG7.
This event will take place online, please register to attend.
IIASA Participation:
21 June 2021, 6.00 - 7.00 EDT
Side event: Integrated approaches to boost SDG7 and climate-relevant SDG actions towards sustainability in the Asia-Pacific
Leena Srivastava, Deputy Director General for Science, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Facilitator: Junichi Fujino, Programme Director, City Taskforce, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), IIASA Alumnus
21 June 2021, 6.00 - 7.00 EDT
Side event: Synergies between energy access, efficiency, and expanding renewables in Africa.
Shonali Pachauri, Research Group Leader Transformative Institutional and Social Solutions Research Group, IIASA ECE Program.
This event will explore pathways and policies that consider synergies among the three SDG7 targets in Africa.
Integrated and coordinated policies that span several sectors offer a vast potential to reap multiple benefits for improving human well-being with reduced investments. In this event, the first speaker will present recent research for sub-Saharan Africa that shows there are synergies among the three SDG7 objectives. Relative to pursuing only the universal access target, integration of all three targets including the energy efficiency objective and target to expand the share of renewables could reduce growth in future residential energy demand. This could also allow for providing a wider range of services with distributed systems, reduce energy-use-related residential emissions, and lower energy related investments needed to meet SDG7. Two additional speakers with vast experience working on energy issues in Africa will provide their perspectives on how integrated planning and policies can help achieve the SDG7 targets with additional benefits for society, economy, and environment.
22 June 2021, 12:45-14:00 EDT
Side Event: SDG7 Policy Briefs 2021 Leveraging Energy Action for Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals
Leena Srivastava, Deputy Director General for Science, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
This side-event will feature a presentation and discussion of the SDG7 Policy Briefs 2021: Leveraging Energy Action for Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.
The SDG7 Policy Briefs are released annually in support of the deliberations at the High-level Political Forum, contributing also this year to the High-level Dialogue on Energy in September, and the implementation of the Decade of Action to deliver the SDGs and the UN Decade of Sustainable Energy for All 2014-2024. The Briefs are compiled by the multi-stakeholder SDG7 Technical Advisory Group, composed of 40 experts from Governments, UN and international organizations, and other stakeholders. The Policy Briefs 2021 place a special focus on the interlinkages of SDG7 with all other SDGs, highlighting that decisive action on sustainable energy can catalyse progress towards all the other SDGs, as well as towards global climate protection targets.
25 June 2021, 6:00 - 7:00 (EDT)
Side Event: The role of the finance sector in reaching SDG7
Bas van Ruijven, Research Group Leader Sustainable Service Systems Research Group, IIASA ECE Program.
This event brings together insights on the investment requirements from integrated assessment modeling of net-zero scenarios with analyses of climate financial risk.
New global net-zero scenarios have been developed to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement while limiting temperature overshoot and the need for net-negative emissions. Such scenarios require faster reductions of emissions over the next few decades then scenarios with a full-century climate target. This has repercussions for the investments that are required during the next decade to reach ambitious climate targets, which will induce shifts in investments between technologies and regions. To mobilize the required investments, analyses of financial risk assessment, show what changes in policies and attitudes will enable financial institutions to play an active role in changing their investments such that global net-zero targets can be achieved.
