Energy connectivity crucial for sustainable development: UN official

Energy connectivity has a crucial role to play for the world to achieve sustainable development, said UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Wu Hongbo on Wednesday.

Wu made the remarks at a high-level luncheon themed with Building Global Energy Interconnection and Achieving Worldwide Sustainable Development of Energy.

He noted that China proposed discussions on a Global Energy Interconnection mechanism to facilitate efforts to meet global energy demand with clean and green alternatives.

With the new concept of energy connectivity, Wu said renewable energy resources, like wind, solar and hydro, in many developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America could be converted into economic advantage to narrow regional gaps.

"As we now move forward with this concept, one thing, however, is clear - there will be challenges - in financing, in means of implementation, in innovation, in creating global and regional cooperation and in bridging differences," he noted.

Sustainable energy is one of the UN's priorities in the area of development. UN statistics show that the share of renewable energy in the world's total final energy consumption has increased slowly, from 17 percent in 2000 to 18 percent in 2012.

Last year, UN member states adopted a set of global goals, known as sustainable development goals, aiming to eliminate poverty, promote equality and combat climate change.

There is one specific goal which asks for ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all people by the year 2030.

To achieve the goal, Wu said more needs to be done to foster cooperation across sectors and promote innovation on finance, technology, infrastructure and partnerships to ensure everyone can have access to sustainable energy. Enditem