Ensuring Access to Affordable, Reliable, Sustainable and Modern Energy for All

Strongly encourages Governments and other relevant stakeholders to take actions to achieve universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy, increase the global share of new and renewable energy, improve the inclusion of developing countries in energy sector cooperation, where relevant, and increase the rate of improvement in energy efficiency for a clean, low-emission, low-carbon climate-resilient, safe, efficient, modern, affordable and sustainable energy system, given the systemic sustainable development benefits, while taking into consideration the diversity of national situations, priorities, policies, specific needs and challenges and capacities of developing countries, including their energy mix and energy systems;

Encourages Governments, the United Nations system and relevant stakeholders to leverage the cost-competitiveness of renewable energy, especially in off-grid areas, in order to achieve universal energy access, such as by establishing policy frameworks for metering and payment systems, requiring cost comparisons between grid extension and off-grid solutions, facilitating investment by domestic and foreign banks and educating students, communities, investors and entrepreneurs on renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation, among other activities, where feasible and appropriate;

Calls upon Governments to expand the use of renewable energy beyond the power sector, taking into account national priorities and constraints, to industry, heating and cooling, construction and infrastructure and, in particular, the transport sector, including through sustainable sector coupling and sustainable and modern bioenergy, in the context of sustainable development, including climate change, and calls for supportive policy initiatives and investments at the national and international levels;

Calls upon Governments, as well as relevant international and regional organizations and other relevant stakeholders, to combine, as appropriate, the increased use of new and renewable energy resources, more efficient use of energy, greater reliance on advanced energy technologies, including cleaner fossil fuel technologies, and the sustainable use of traditional energy resources;

Encourages Governments, relevant international and regional organizations and other relevant stakeholders to promote investments in developing sustainable, reliable, modern, inclusive and equitable energy systems, including, inter alia, by strengthening energy systems through cross-border grid connections, as appropriate, and to consider incorporating decentralized renewable energy solutions in energy planning, as appropriate, and recognizes that energy transition will take different paths in different parts of the world;

Encourages Governments and all relevant stakeholders to increase investment and actions to support the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 7, and to integrate affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy solutions to enhance responses to and recovery from COVID-19, in line with resilient, inclusive and sustainable development pathways, and to ensure energy security, and urges developed countries, relevant international and regional organizations and other relevant stakeholders to support the efforts of developing countries, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, taking into consideration the different national circumstances and in line with the national development priorities of developing countries, including through multi-stakeholder partnerships, in order to fulfil the commitment on ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030, recognizing that increased investments in affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy solutions and accelerated action beyond a business-as-usual recovery will aid countries in responding to the pandemic and economic crisis, in building back better, including, inter alia, by reducing emissions, creating jobs and promoting resource efficiency, and in advancing long-term resilience and the Sustainable Development Goals, which are integrated and interrelated;

Encourages Governments, relevant international organizations and other relevant stakeholders to use and promote an integrated resource planning and management approach in their energy strategies that considers energy choices in the context of linked sectors, inter alia, water, waste, air quality and food, taking into account national circumstances;

Encourages Governments, with the support of relevant stakeholders, as appropriate, to accelerate the transition towards sustainable economies, according to national policies and plans, through mitigation and adaptation strategies that improve energy efficiency and create more and better employment opportunities for all, including young people, in wage and self-employment;

Invites all relevant funding institutions and bilateral and multilateral donors, as well as regional funding institutions, the private sector and non-governmental organizations, to continue ongoing efforts and take further action to provide financial resources, as appropriate, to support efforts aimed at ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy in developing countries and countries with economies in transition, including low-emission, low-carbon and climate-resilient new and renewable resources of energy of demonstrated viability, especially focused on energy access and economic development in both urban and rural areas, while noting the potential catalytic effect of concessional and other finance and taking fully into account the development structure of energy-based economies of developing countries;

Encourages the development, dissemination, diffusion and transfer of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on mutually agreed terms, including concessional and preferential terms, and highlights the importance of integrating sustainable energy in the Technology Facilitation Mechanism;

Encourages the development of viable market-oriented strategies that could result in further rapid reductions in the cost of new and renewable resources of energy and could further increase the competitiveness of those technologies, including through the adoption, as appropriate, of public policies for research, development and market deployment, including rationalizing inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption by removing market distortions, in accordance with national circumstances;

Encourages the Secretary-General to continue efforts to promote the provision of stable, adequate and predictable financial resources and technical assistance for sustainable energy and to enhance the effectiveness, coordination and full utilization of appropriate international funds for the effective implementation of national and regional high-priority projects for ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all, and welcomes the convening of the high-level dialogue on the midpoint review of the United Nations Decade of Sustainable Energy for All (2014–2024), held on 23 and 24 May 2019;

Encourages UN-Energy to support coherence and coordination among the energy-related activities of the entities of the United Nations development system, within their respective mandates, in line with the implementation of resolutions 71/243 of 21 December 2016, 72/279 of 31 May 2018, 74/297 of 11 August 2020 and Economic and Social Council resolution 2019/15 of 8 July 2019, in order to assist countries, in particular at the country level, upon request by their Governments, by explicitly leveraging partnerships with other international organizations, donors and relevant stakeholders, including in their efforts to achieve universal access to sustainable energy and to accelerate its deployment;

Calls upon the Secretary-General to promote renewable energy, energy efficiency and related sustainable practices in all United Nations facilities and operations around the world, where appropriate and economically viable;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its seventy-sixth session a report on the implementation of the present resolution, including activities carried out to mark the United Nations Decade of Sustainable Energy for All, and decides to include in the provisional agenda of its seventy-sixth session, under the item entitled “Sustainable development”, the sub-item entitled “Ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”.