The UN-Energy Video Conference/Telephone Conference was held on 12 January 2007 from 4-6 pm Vienna time / 10-12 am Washington D.C./New York time. The VC/TC was attended by more than 25 participants, including representatives of DESA, ECA, ECE, ECLAC, FAO, IAEA, UNCTAD, UNDP, UNEP, UNFCCC, UNIDO and the World Bank. ESCAP, ESCWA, UN-Habitat and WHO were unable to attend.
The VC/TC was convened on the occasion of a business visit of the Chair of UN-Energy to Vienna. The Chair welcomed the members of the group. Upon invitation of the Chair, Dr. Kandeh K. Yumkella, UNIDO Director-General, addressed the UN-Energy group at the opening of the meeting. In his statement the UNIDO Director-General drew attention to the continuing lack of access to modern energy services in Sub-Saharan Africa. He referred the group to the recent UNIDO vision statement and identified areas in which increased international cooperation is needed to promote the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The UNIDO Director-General emphasized the importance of availability, affordability and reliability of energy for industrial development and he illustrated the commitment on the part of UNIDO to work together with UN and other partners in Africa and elsewhere (e.g. collaboration with IAEA, FAO, IIASA, OPEC Fund and bilateral donors). Referring to the “Delivering as One” report of the High-level Panel Dr. Yumkella encouraged UN-Energy to continue and expand the collaboration among members with a view to attain greater coherence and effectiveness in the programme of work.
Preparations for CSD-15
Upon invitation of the Chair, the Secretary to UN-Energy briefed the group on progress in the preparatory consultations for CSD-15. He summarized the report of the 1st meeting of the CSD Bureau and invited the members of the group to periodically check the webpages of the Commission for Sustainable Development and of the Secretariat for up-dated information. He also drew attention to the invitation of the CSD Secretariat to all stakeholders to continue to make available case studies of lessons learned and best practices in addressing barriers and constraints in the thematic areas of energy for sustainable development, industrial development, air pollution/atmosphere, and climate change. He informed UN-Energy members that the CSD-14/15 matrix will be further updated periodically in preparation for CSD-15.
The Secretary also informed the group on the recently issued guidelines for organizers of side events, the guidelines for CSD Learning Centre course proposals and the guidelines for the CSD-15 Partnership Fair. All pertinent application forms and information on deadlines for submission can also be found on the CSD webpage.
Progress in implementation of UN-Energy Work Programme
( a ) Toolkits for policy integration at the national level (IAEA-lead activity) : IAEA informed the group on progress achieved in data collection and in the preparation of the case study report on Assessing Policy Options for Increasing the Use of Renewable Energy for Sustainable Development: Modelling Energy Scenarios for Sichuan Province of China. With reference to earlier requests for inputs DESA offered IAEA some assistance in securing additional data, in particular with regard to the utilization of biogas and small hydropower in Sichuan Province of China. IAEA informed members of a 2-page summary that has been prepared to introduce readers to the objectives of the report and to the methodologies that have been applied. IAEA expects to complete the pertinent report in time for CSD-15.
( b ) Mainstreaming energy considerations into MDG-based national development strategies / PRS (UNDP-led activity): UNDP informed that group that a “zero-draft” has recently been prepared. UNDP will circulate this draft in a few days time among the interested UN-Energy members for their respective case study inputs or other comments. Upon invitation of the Chair, UNDP also briefed UN-Energy on ongoing preparations towards the UNDP Human Development Report 2007 which will focus on the themes of environment, energy and climate change.
( c ) FAO, the lead agency on bioenergy, informed that the draft for the planned UN Energy publication on bioenergy will soon be available for circulation and comments. The Worldbank requested FAO to make the detailed conceptual outline and the draft publication available for discussion at an early stage and reminded FAO that UN-Energy publications can only be issued with the consent of all members.
( d ) Update of mapping of activities of UN-Energy members: Several members observed that as of now UN-Energy has no profile with regards to promotion of energy efficiency. The Secretary invited members to provide, as a first step, information on recent, on-going and planned activities in this field with a view to include energy efficiency as an additional category of activities in the currently on-going update of the mapping of activities. The possible preparation of a position paper was also mentioned and suggested to be discussed at a future meeting.
Other matters
( a ) Planned Conferences on Energy in Africa: The Chair informed UN-Energy of emerging plans on the part of the Government of Ghana to convene a Conference of Ministers of Energy and Finance in Accra, possibly by the end of March 2007. The Worldbank and UNEP informed members that there are also preparations on-going in Maputo, Mozambique, towards convening a Ministerial Conference on Energy under the auspices of FEMA.
( b ) The Secretary reminded members of the request and the invitation to provide any new, up-dated or additional information for the updating of the UN-Energy webpage to wahnschafft@un.org by 19 January 2007.
( c ) It was recalled that UN-Energy organized a side-event during CSD-14, and it was suggested to consider convening a similar UN-Energy side event at CSD-15. Preparations for such a side event would have to be initiated and completed during the month of March, as the deadline for submission of requests would be 30 March 2007.
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