Sustainable Energy for All

Fighting climate change is part of the larger effort of fighting poverty, and therefore, adopting a set of sustainable development goals that frame the holistic approach to fight poverty with social inclusion of women, minorities, and the poor is important to this success. The Conference on Financing for Sustainable Developing took place in July in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to help find ways that poor countries can access electricity and finance the research, development, and demonstration of new technologies for low-carbon energy. The Millennium Development Goals were not legally binding, but were adopted to draw the world’s attention to the plight of extreme poverty; the UN General Assembly has been called upon to adopt a concise set of sustainable development goals in September 2015 that will cover the three main dimensions of sustainable development, which are to promote economic development, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability. There is general agreement that the first goal of the SDGs will be to end poverty, goal two will be to end hunger, goal three is to ensure health, goal four is to ensure education for all children, goal six is to ensure access to water and sanitation, goal seven is to ensure access to modern energy, goal thirteen is about climate change itself, etc. Poor countries have insisted that one of the goals be about the means of implementation, so that all countries can achieve these goals in terms of technology and financing. These are similar concerns that countries will have at COP21 in Paris. To overcome the energy poverty of those in the most underdeveloped regions, it is vital to give aid, and public-private investment in research and development is crucial. This video is part of the module Energy and Development.

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