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 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, reliable 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, including for metering and payment systems, 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 and hydrogen 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 technologies and renewable energy resources, other low- or zero-emissions solutions, more efficient use of energy and greater reliance on advanced energy technologies, including technologies that avoid, abate and remove greenhouse gas emissions;

Encourages Governments, relevant international and regional organizations and other relevant stakeholders to promote investments in developing sustainable, reliable, modern, inclusive and equitable energy systems, 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 transitions 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, for a sustainable, resilient and inclusive recovery, including 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 technologies 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 technologies 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 phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption while providing targeted support to the poor and most vulnerable, 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 recalls 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;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue engagement with Member States on the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 7, in a comprehensive and evidence-based manner, as a follow-up to the high-level dialogue on energy and the United Nations Decade of Sustainable Energy for All;

Requests the President of the General Assembly to convene a global stocktaking, funded from extrabudgetary resources, to be held in 2024, marking the completion of the ongoing efforts to implement the plan of action of the Decade, and building on the follow-up to the high-level dialogue on energy, to further accelerate the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 7 of the 2030 Agenda;

Calls upon the United Nations development system to work through existing initiatives and resources and within its mandate with relevant stakeholders, such as international financial institutions, along with development partners, such as multilateral and regional development banks and the private sector, to address capacity and funding gaps, particularly in developing countries, to scale up energy-related investments and to provide support to countries in need so as to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all;

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, and with existing resources in line with the implementation of resolutions 71/243 of 21 December 2016, 72/279 of 31 May 2018 and 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, inter alia through normative support and expertise to the resident coordinator system, upon request by their Governments, by leveraging partnerships with other international organizations, donors and relevant stakeholders, including in their efforts to achieve universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all 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-eighth 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-eighth session, under the item entitled “Sustainable development”, the sub-item entitled “Ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”.