The Government of Austria; the Government of Paraguay; the United Nations Office of the High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforAll) are organizing the side event to the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) that would consider how to effectively utilize the multi-stakeholder environment to accelerate the energy transition in LLDCs to meet SDG7. This is a follow-up to the High-Level Meeting on “Accelerating Sustainable Energy for All in Landlocked Developing Countries through Innovative Partnerships” that was held in October 2016 and discussed some of the issues.

The side event will present LLDC inputs to the first global review of SDG7 at the HLPF 2018 while furthermore contributing to the Vienna Programme of Action for the LLDCs for the Decade 2014-2024 (VPoA) which recognizes the energy challenges and opportunities in LLDCs. The side event will play a crucial milestone in the preparatory process of the midterm review of the VPoA as called for in the General Assembly resolution 72/232.  It is one of the pre-conference thematic events and its outcome will contribute to the midterm review.

        The side event will discuss and share experiences on the following issues:

• Scaling up and replication of successful national initiatives to improve access to modern and clean energy;
• Establishment of bilateral and multi-lateral public-private funded commercial scale demonstration projects;
• Financing alternatives to cover LLDCs’ huge energy investment needs;
• Strengthening cross-border partnerships that help build capacity of LLDCs on SDG7;
• Strengthening the absorption and innovation capacities of the domestic private sector in a transitioning energy system;
• Strengthening of a systematic approach to the energy transition that considers not just infrastructure but also innovations in systems, processes, in market design and in business models.

Documents

Concept Note

Summary Report of the event

Flyer

Programme

Proceedings: 

• Moderator /Opening Remarks: Ms. Fekitamoeloa Katoa ‘Utoikamanu,Under-Secretary General and High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island Developing States

Remarks:

• Ms. Ana Sandoval, Chargé d’Affaires a.i., Permanent Mission of Paraguay to the United Nations, Global Chair of the Group of LLDCs
• H.E. Ambassador Sylvia Meier-Kajbic, Department for Multilateral Development Cooperation, Austria and Co-Chair of the Group of Friends of LLDCs

• Ms. Isabelle Durant, Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD

• Mr. Tareq Emtairah, Director, Department of Energy, UNIDO

• Ms. Caroline McGregor, Lead Specialist for Energy Access and Gender, Sustainable Energy for All

Experience sharing

• Ethiopia – H.E. Ambassador Gebeyehu Ganga Gayito, Deputy Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the United Nations 
• Kazakhstan – Mr. Kanat Tumysh, Deputy Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the United Nations
• Nepal – Mr. Dinesh Ghimire, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation