United Nations Pathways to Sustainable Energy: Accelerating Energy Transition in the UNECE Region: 67 (ECE Energy Series)

Energy underpins the development of economies and most of the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda). The energy sector plays a critical role in finding solutions for both sustainable development and climate change mitigation. Since the universal agreement on the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including the goal on sustainable energy SDG 7 in 2015, countries have commenced with the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. However, at this stage, there is a gap between the agreed energy and climate targets and the strategies and systems that are being put in place today to achieve them. Accelerated and more ambitious strategies and policies will be needed to fill the persistent gaps to achieve the 2030 Agenda, and in particular, energy will need to play an increasing role across various SDGs. If gaps are not addressed urgently, more drastic and expensive action will be required to avoid extreme and, potentially, unrecoverable adaptation measures. Currently, there are many different interpretations of what is “sustainable energy”. Countries in the region of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) have not yet agreed on a collective pathway to achieve energy for sustainable development. For the ECE region there is an important opportunity to explore the implications of different sustainable energy pathways and to work together on developing and deploying policies and measures to attain the 2030 Agenda. This is why the Committee on Sustainable Energy (the Committee) initiated this flagship project ""Pathways to Sustainable Energy"" (the project). The objective of the project is the development of strategies and actions to ensure the attainment of sustainable energy in the ECE region . The project’s goal is to strengthen the knowledge and capacities of countries to develop, implement and track national sustainable energy policies aligned with their commitments on climate change and sustainable development, and to understand the objectives and actions of other countries. The project aims to contribute concretely to climate change mitigation and sustainable development.