MINUTES OF THE UN ENERGY VIDEO MEETING

17th July 2009

17:00 – 18:20 (CET)

The UN-Energy Conference call was requested by the Chair of UN-Energy in order to informally discuss short-term deliverables and important ongoing related activities and negotiations.  The list of participants is attached at Annex I._____________________________________________________________________________

Mr. Yoshiteru Uramoto, Deputy Director General of UNIDO, opened the meeting (In place of Mr. Kandeh Yumkella – Director General of UNIDO and Chairman of UN-Energy who was unable to attend) and welcomed the participants.  He then introduced the agenda: 

• Exchange of updates on key events and developments since the last meeting
• Key upcoming energy and climate change events and strategic participation by UN-Energy
• UN-Energy participation in COP15/Copenhagen: side events and meetings
• Review of programme of work
• AOB

Mr. Yoshiteru Uramoto (UNIDO) opened stating that the UN-Energy General Meeting 2009 was hosted by the World Bank in Washington D.C. (March 31 to April 2, 2009).  He added that Mr. Kandeh Yumkella had been appointed to lead the Secretary General’s new Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change which will be moving towards draft  recommendations on: Energy Efficiency, Energy Access, and Private Sector engagement and will hold it’s next meeting on 20th August in Sweden.  He then went on to update the participants on two recent events:  The Vienna International Energy Conference held from 22-24 June 2009 at the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna and the General Assembly Energy discussions – UN-Energy Impacts held from 17-18 June.  Both of which were successful events.  He also informed the participants that Mr. Bob Dixon was nominated by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to sit on the UN-Energy Group and expressed that Mr. Bob Dixon would be an asset to the UN-Energy Group.  Mr. Yoshiteru Uramoto (UNIDO) introduced Mr. Morgan Bazilian, the Special Advisor on Energy and Climate Change to the Director General of UNIDO, who will be working on UN-Energy amongst his other functions at UNIDO. 

Other Key events:

• Ms. Marina Ploutakhina (UNIDO) added that the objective of the Secretary General’s new Advisory Group Meeting on 20th August in Sweden is to produce the draft set of recommendations for the Secretary General.
• Mr. Mark Radka (UNEP) updated participants on IRENA informing them that there are now 136 Government signatories, France  has interim Secretary General, IRENA’s statutes will enter into force in the first half of 2010 at which time IRENA will be established as an International Organization.
• Mr. Osman Benchikh (UNESCO) informed participants about the UNESCO hosted World Science Forum to be held from 5-11 November 2009, in Budapest.  He added that this would be a Ministerial meeting of G77 and China Groups.
• Mr. Viktor Badaker (UN-DESA) informed the participants that the brief based on the presentations in Energy Access would be ready at the end of July 2009.

Mr. Yoshiteru Uramoto (UNIDO), outlined the key energy and climate change events and strategic participation by UN-Energy from August to December 2009 as: UN HQ meetings 22-23 September 2009, High-Level Conference on Climate Change and Technology Transfer, New Delhi, 22-23 October 2009, UNFCCC: august 10, Bonn September 29, Bangkok November, Barcelona, and COP15 December in Copenhagen.

Other Key energy and Climate Change Events:

• Mr. Alexander Müller (FAO) informed the participants of the World Food Summit to be held in Rome from 16-18 November 2009.
• Ms. Marina Ploutakhina (UNIDO) added that the Climate Change Summit will take place on 22 September.  She noted that the concept paper would be available in August 2009.
• Mr. Osman Benchikh (UNESCO) informed participants that the Delhi Conference which is the successor of the Beijing – Technology Development and Cooperation on Climate Change Conference will be held in October 2009.  He added that Delhi is collaborating with the Government of India and that the Prime Minister of India will inaugurate the event.  Currently 30 Ministers registered to attend and total participation estimated at 500 participants.

Mr. Yoshiteru Uramoto (UNIDO) opened discussions on UN-Energy participation, and side events at COP15 in Copenhagen. He commented that if there is a need for a side event, the registration and programme definition should be completed in order to submit the proposal to the UNFCCC in early September.

         Discussion:

• Ms. Marina Ploutakhina (UNIDO) explained that last years UN-Energy side event  was in cooperation with the IAEA which could be used as a model for this years event either by doing a joint event or by working in clusters with Energy Efficiency as a the theme.
• Mr. Mark Howells (IAEA) added that last years joint UNIDO/IAEA UN-Energy side event was well attended and that an  item for this years event could be ‘Global Energy Assessment: Role of Energy Efficiency in the Future’.
• Mr. Dolf Gielen (UNIDO) commented that cooperation was an interesting idea and that it would be good to find out if GEA is doing an event on their own.  Idea for theme: Energy Standards.
• Mr. Mark Radka (UNEP) stated that it would be valuable for UN-Energy to have a meeting at COP15 in Copenhagen in order to better demonstrate UN Implementation, outcomes and systems.
• Mr. Morgan Bazilian (UNIDO) & Mark Howells (IAEA), highlighted that both a UN-Energy Meeting and UN-Energy side event should be done at COP15 in order to ensure coherence of the work programme,  increase visibility of UN-energy and of wider UN system tools and instruments. They suggested that the side-event should be focused on the three cluster topics.

          Decision:

• Morgan Bazilian and Marina Ploutakhina to progress an outline for the side-event along with cluster leaders. Secretariat to submit proposal to UNFCCC.
• Secretariat to supporting planning for an UN-Energy meeting at COP15 in Copenhagen.

Mr. Yoshiteru Uramoto (UNIDO) reviewed the work programme and asked for an update from each of the three clusters.

• Energy Efficiency: Mr. Dolf Gielen (UNIDO) recapped Washington discussions. He emphasized the need to broaden the scope of the clusters. The EE cluster will now focus on the development of industrial EE cost curves, and develop methodologies. Mr. Mark Howells (IAEA) added that these will be useful for Governments as tools for CBA analysis.
• Renewable Energy: Mr. Alexander Müller (FAO) updated the group on the decision support tool it is finalizing along with UNEP.
• Energy Access:    Mr. Tariq Banari (UN-DESA) noted that a paper on energy access was being published soon as a delivery for this cluster and the Secretary General’s Advisory Group.

  AOB

• The meeting was adjourned at 18:20 (CET).

 ______________________________________

Annex I