At the Rio+20 Summit the world leaders agreed on the outcome document “The Future We Want”, which created the global development agenda for the next twenty years. Organized one year after the Rio+20 Summit, the third Vienna Energy Forum (VEF 2013) focuses on the energy dimension captured in the Rio+20 outcome document. It provides a high level forum for leaders, policy makers and energy practitioners to engage in an interactive dialogue on key specific sustainable energy issues, such as policies, markets, finance and technologies.
First Set of Global Data on Energy Access, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Released
About 1.2 billion people – almost the population of India – don’t have access to electricity, 2.8 billion have to rely on wood or other biomass to cook and heat their homes, renewable energy accounts for 18 percent of the global energy mix, and the largest energy savings and greatest expansion of renewables happened in China.
These are just some of the findings of a unique new report by a multi-agency team led by the World Bank. The report, compiled by experts from 15 agencies, is the first of a series to monitor progress towards the three objectives of the Sustainable Energy for All initiative, launched in 2011 by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The initiative, whose advisory board is co-chaired by World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, is mobilizing a global coalition of governments, private sector and civil society to achieve, by 2030, its three objectives of universal access, doubled renewables and doubled energy efficiency improvement.
