Energy for Sustainable Development: Overview
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Energy is central to sustainable development and poverty reduction efforts.
It affects all aspects of development -- social, economic, and environmental -- including
livelihoods, access to water, agricultural productivity, health, population levels, education,
and gender-related issues. None of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) can be met without
major improvement in the quality and quantity of energy services in developing countries.
UNDP's efforts in energy for sustainable development support the achievement of the
MDGs, especially MDG 1, reducing by half the proportion of people living in poverty by 2015.
Through an integrated development approach, UNDP works to help create enabling policy frameworks,
develop local capacity and provide knowledge-based advisory services for expanding access
to energy services for the poor.
What's New
24
May 2007 - Mainstreaming
Access to Energy Services: Experiences from Three African Regional Economic Communities -
This document, focusing on integrating access to modern energy services into regional and national policies
and policy tools, is a UNDP contribution to CSD 15. It presents the experience of three African Regional
Economic Councils — ECOWAS in West Africa; CEMAC in Central Africa; EAC in East Africa. Also
available in French.
17
May 2007 - UNDP,
UNEP, World Bank team up on Access to Energy -
Synergy on energy: Three organizations strengthen cooperation to empower the poor. The United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Bank expressed
their commitment to strengthen cooperation on energy access, an important advance in the drive
for more efficient and more effective support to poverty reduction and sustainable development. Also
highlights the speech by UNDP Associate Administrator Ad Melkert to the CSD.
17
May 2007 - Ad
Melkert Speech to the Commission on Sustainable Development -
Speech delivered by Under Secretary-General and UNDP Associate Administrator Ad Melkert at a high-level
ministerial session of CSD-15. He noted the billions
who live without access to basic energy services, and their resultant entrenchment
in poverty, and spoke about the nexus between the achievement of the MDGs, and the
positive impact of that thrust towards alleviating the poverty entrenchment while
mitigating climate change issues. Melkert additionally articulated that cooperation
and harmonization among international agencies and national leadership were critical
to the goal of effecting “tangible
improvements to the lives of the poor.”
14
March 2007 - A Review of Energy in National MDG Reports -
This study reviews over 100 national MDG reports in an effort to understand how energy issues are recognised
and integrated in the MDG monitoring framework. The report highlights useful examples
of how some countries have attempted to link energy services to a broader set of development
issues, such as poverty reduction, gender equality, and environmental sustainability and climate
change.
11
January 2007 - The
Energy Challenge: Paying in Pollution for Energy Hunger -
This article is part of a New York Times series on “The Energy Challenge”. Articles in this series are
examining the ways in which the world is, and is not, moving toward a more energy efficient, environmentally
benign future. The article explains that while countries like India and China have explored alternatives,
too often the cheap diesel generator has become the favorite way to provide electricity for powering
lights, irrigation pumps and, increasingly, televisions. While renewable sources have made some inroads,
including small hydroelectric dams and biomass generators, government subsidies for diesel, kerosene
and other fossil fuels have held down prices in many developing countries and made it harder to introduce
renewable energy technologies.
Nandita Mongia, the chief of the UNDP Regional Energy Programme for Asia and the Pacific is quoted in
the article.
6
November 2006 - Energizing
Poverty Reduction: A Review of the Energy-Poverty Nexus in Poverty Reduction Strategy
Papers -
This report examines to what degree energy-poverty dynamics are reflected in the
current policies and plans set forth in national poverty reduction strategies. Using 54 Poverty
Reduction Strategy Papers as the basis of its analysis, the report concludes that although
energy’s centrality to the MDGs is well accepted at the conceptual level - as evidenced
by its recognition in various international and intergovernmental forums, including the recent
2005 World Summit – the same cannot be said so easily at the operational level, where
energy is still by and large seen as a single-sector, ‘hardware’-driven issue,
with limited linkages between energy service delivery and impacts on poverty reduction and
the achievement of the MDGs. The present treatment of the energy-poverty nexus as observed
in the reviewed PRSPs - particularly the lack of energy targets with specific timelines and
the low levels of public investment being made in energy - suggests that many PRSPs fall short
of supporting the achievement of national MDGs. Urgent attention is needed to redress this
situation as countries try to integrate the MDGs into their PRSPs and other national development
strategies.
ARCHIVE - « Archive
of "What's New" »
Featured
Publications
Energy
and Gender for Sustainable Development: A Toolkit and Resource Guide
Toolkit & resource guide designed to help planners & practitioners integrate gender & energy
into development programmes. Produced jointly by UNDP & ENERGIA.
Energy
Services for the Millennium Development Goals
underscores importance of energy services for the MDG agenda, stressing
three types of services in particular: modern fuels for cooking and heating;
electricity for public services; and motive power for productive uses in communities.
World
Energy Assessment Overview: 2004 Update provides an update to the
original World Energy Assessment, published in 2001. The publication presents
the linkages between energy and the Millennium Development Goals
From our Country Offices
Partnerships
Global
Environment Facility (GEF) UNDP-GEF supports the development of projects
in the areas of biodiversity, climate change, international waters, ozone depletion,
persistent organic pollutants and land degradation.
GEF
Small Grants Program The Small Grants Programme aims to deliver global
environmental benefits in the GEF Focal Areas.
Global
Village Energy Partnership (GVEP) GVEP brings together developing country and
industrialised governments, multilateral and bilateral donors, private firms, NGOs and
other stakeholders to ensure access to modern energy services by the poor. Read about
GVEP's recent activities by clicking
here.
LP
Gas Rural Energy Challenge The LPG Challenge is a public private partnership
between the World Liquid Petroleum Gas Association (WLPGA) and the UNDP designed to create
viable and sustainable markets for LP Gas delivery and consumption. Visit
this link for an 8-page brief and status reports.
Global
Network on Energy for Sustainable Development (GNESD), a UNEP facilitated knowledge
network of developing world Centres of Excellence and network partners, renowned
for their work on energy, development, and environment issues.
UNDP/World
Bank Energy Sector Management Assistance Program ESMAP is a global technical
assistance program which helps build consensus and provides policy advice on sustainable
energy development to governments of developing countries and economies in transition.
West
Africa; 
