Sustainable Energy for All Year

In the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All, the program tries to ensure universal access to electricity

Began in earnest this week a program launched by the United Nations (UN) in Abu Dhabi (UAE), which has a threefold purpose: to ensure access to electricity for all households (since we are in the International Year of Energy Sustainable for All), double the overall weight of renewable energy and improve energy efficiency by 2030.

During the inauguration speech of the World Future Energy Summit, the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that this initiative is seeking a personal commitment to fight inequality and defend "human dignity". Both said they have designated a "high level group of [representatives] of business, finance, government and civil society actions to lead the initiative."

"It is neither fair nor sustainable one in five people still do not have access to modern electricity," he told conference participants. "It is unacceptable that three billion people still need wood, coal, charcoal or animal waste for cooking and heating," he added.

Ban said that ensuring access to electricity is one way to combat poverty, a view similar to the Brazilian Minister of Mines and Energy, Edison Lobao, who extend the network to remote regions of Brazil has improved the economic situation of 15 million people .

The challenge of doubling the share of renewables in global energy consumption by 2030, reaching 30%, it is difficult, as recognized by Ban Ki-moon himself, but doable, according to all forum participants.
According to the Development Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, this transition would cost about 50 billion euros, which for the director general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Julia Marton-Lefèvre, is small when compared with the price of import fuels fossils.

Commitment of the emerging
One of the factors that favor the optimists on the fulfillment of the goal to triple the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All is the commitment made by developing countries with renewable energy. Nevertheless, to achieve the transition economies with low emissions of carbon dioxide - warned the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao - nuclear energy is indispensable.

Wen Jiabao defended the peaceful use of renewable energy and recalled that his country combines a strong development of renewable energy - both solar and wind and hydro power - with the construction of new nuclear plants.

The World Future Energy Summit is a conference convened annually by Masdar - a UAE owned company dedicated to the research and promotion of renewable energy - which will receive the 2012 edition 26,000 visitors and 600 companies around the world.