Excellencies, distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen,
It is my pleasure to join this very important panel on the topic of energy compacts.
Asia and the Pacific is the critical region for energy transition and climate change. More than half of global greenhouse gas emissions and more than half of global energy are from this region.
Therefore, the global success of the energy transition as well as stabilizing climate change hinges our actions. And, as in other parts of the world, the Asia-Pacific region needs to ramp up actions especially on Sustainable Development Goal 7 on affordable and clean energy to close the remaining gaps as well as enhance the ambitions of its commitments under the Paris Agreement.
Therefore, in this regard, we have been supporting member States on three fronts:
First, supporting member States to develop their SDG 7 Roadmaps. Up to now, about 20 countries that we have been supporting in developing their SDG Roadmaps. Now, several countries are in the stage of the implementation of the SDG Roadmaps; therefore, we also facilitating the support with all the development partners.
Second, we have been supporting member States in their clean cooking fuels, especially in certain parts of the region in which this is still a huge problem. Therefore, how to shift the cooking fuels from so-called dirty fuels to cleaner cooking fuels.
Third, we have been supporting collaboration across countries in developing the regional or subregional renewable energy market through the renewable energy connectivity in particular in developing the regional power system grid. All these lie within the energy compacts that have been developed by the respective countries. They provide a voluntary mechanism that allows countries and private sector or development partners to target specific areas of focus within the energy transition.
These commitments are very important and can signal priorities for donors and development partners to follow up on. I commend the countries and other stakeholders which have signed up their energy compacts and we encourage more countries and stakeholders in our region to take this step.
Thank you very much
