Oslo, Norway, 18-20 October 2017
Ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all is fundamental to human development and is also a necessary investment in our collective future. Energy is inextricably linked to most of the global challenges now and in the future, including poverty, food security, clean water, public health, education, economic growth, youth’s and women’s empowerment, and climate change.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has set out 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets, which jointly constitute a comprehensive plan of action to eradicate poverty and ensure sustainable development. SDG7 is a first-ever universal goal on energy, with five targets on access, efficiency, renewables and means of implementation.
The High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in 2018, with SDG7 in focus, will serve as a first critical milestone to review global progress of SDG7 toward 2030. Member States will undertake in-depth reviews, including through the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs), to assess progress at the country level towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs. Regional Sustainable Development Forums, convened by UN Regional Commissions, will deepen sharing of experiences and best practices at the regional level. Taken together, these processes at country, regional and global levels provide an important opportunity to take stock of progress to-date including energy’s linkages with other Sustainable Development Goals, and reflect on the way forward to accelerate implementation.
In June 2017, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), with UNESCAP and UN Office for Sustainable Development, organised a symposium “Progress on SDG 7 and its Interlinkages with other SDGs in support of First Review of SDG7 during the 2018 High-Level Political Forum,” in Bangkok. Recognising the importance of energy for all SDGs, it called for strengthened capacity building and emphasised the need for a policy-relevant global assessment on the interlinkages between energy and other SDGs to feed into inter-governmental discussions.
Building on the discussions in Bangkok, the UNDESA, as the secretariat for the High Level Political Forum, is convening a Symposium on SDG 7 (Energy) in Preparation to the 2018 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development to build capacities and discuss critical issues on the process leading up to the HLPF 2018 and its follow up action.
The Symposium is co-organised with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, SINTEF, and the UN Office for Sustainable Development (UNODS).
