UN energy initiative 'in danger of hijack'

The UN's initiative to bring clean energy to people living in poverty across the world is in danger of being hijacked by multinational power companies, more than 100 campaigning organisations have warned.

In a joint statement released at the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development, the organisations urged governments and the UN to ensure that poor communities must be far more involved in the plan which is supposed to help them.

Among the 107 signatories of the statement are Friends of the Earth, Christian Aid, Article 19, Bolivian Climate Change Platform, International Institute for Environment and Development, International Tibet Network, Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, Oxfam and Greenpeace.

The Statement welcomes the UN Secretary General's Sustainable Energy For All initiative and the 2012 UN General Assembly-endorsed International Year of Sustainable Energy for All as bringing welcome political attention to the task of ensuring that people living in poverty have access to clean, safe, affordable and reliable energy.

At present, more than 1.3 billion people in the world have no electricity, while 40 per cent of the global population uses solid fuels for cooking or heating.

However, the two-page statement warns: ''The initative as it stands is inadequate and non-inclusive and will not achieve the level of change required to tackle both energy poverty and dangerous climate change. To date, multinational corporations have been given the biggest role, while the very voices of those it exists to help have been excluded at the highest levels.

'We call on the UN Secretary General to ensure a meaningful, accountable and people-driven process at global and national level that involves the energy poor, affected communities and marginalised and vulnerable groups. In turn, this can deliver the higher levels of ambition needed to bring about effective change. Without such engagement, the initiative risks being ineffective and illegitimate.'

Pascoe Sabido, Sustainable Energy Advisor to Friends of the Earth Europe, said: 'The world agrees that our energy system is broken. It's not working for the billions without electricity or clean cooking facilities, and it's not working for the planet as it sends us hurtling towards a climate crisis. If the UN Secretary General is serious about providing sustainable energy for all, he needs to listen to people around the world calling for an ambitious and people-driven initiative that can really transform our energy system, not lock the poor into another generation of dirty energy.'

Dr Alison Doig, Senior Adviser on Sustainable Energy at Christian Aid, said: 'Governments at Rio+20 have the chance to commit to ending the scandal of energy poverty worldwide by supporting an urgent push to provide clean and affordable energy to deliver lighting, cooking, vaccine cooling and power small enterprise. To achieve this, it will be essential that the poor communities are viewed as partners in delivering the energy they need, and not just customers for power companies.'

Lidy Nacpil, International Coordinator, Jubilee South Asia/Pacific Movement on Debt and Development, said: 'Any global energy initiative that doesn't put people in the driving seat is bound to fail in addressing energy poverty. Instead of looking at community owned and managed energy, it pushes more privatisation and makes sure our energy system and our democracies remains in the hands of the 1 per cent. Corporate interests have ensured that the world is actively avoiding a rapid shift to clean and renewable energy.'

Augustine B Njamnishi, Executive Secretary, BDCP Cameroon, a member of the Pan African Climate Justice Network, said: 'Now more than ever we need to ensure that the poorest people in the world, especially in Africa, can enjoy the basic rights that citizens in rich countries take for granted. We need to ensure that the people of Africa can enjoy clean and affordable energy - an energy future that helps our people and isn't solely about delivering even bigger profits for dirty energy companies.'

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