Projects

Short Description:

Overall goal

The Vienna-based organisation "Sustainable Energy for All" (SEforALL) supports the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 7.

SEforALL operates under three global objectives:

1. to ensure universal access to modern energy services

2. to double global energy efficiency gains

3. to double the share of renewable energy sources in the global energy mix.

The Austrian contribution is to support the SEforALL organisation in two specific programmes "Women at the Forefront" and "Sustainable Cooling for All" to achieve these three objectives globally.

Expected results

SEforALL expects the following results by 2025 through the two funded programmes:

1. Improve women's access to leadership in the energy sector, through internships, mentor programmes or promotion of women's speaking engagements at business events. The objective is to provide women with leadership positions in the longer term.

2. Provide policy recommendations, data, and technical support to countries and partners in support of cooling commitments in national cooling plans and NDCs, Support financing and scale-up of access to cooling solutions with integrated data, knowledge and communication tools, production of an updated Chilling Prospects 2022 to track access to cooling support and provide enhanced analytics to support decision-making.

Target group / Beneficiaries

As a global platform, SEforALL operates worldwide to achieve international energy goals. The target group consists of 759 million people living in countries where insufficient access to electricity is crucial for economic and social development . SEforALL works with a wide range of partners from business, industry and society. The organisation relies primarily on regional support and receives this through numerous regionally recognised hubs, such as the International Renewable Energy Agency IRENA, the World Bank, the regional development banks (AfDB, IADB, ADB) or through UN organisations such as UNDP or UNIDO, as well as through partnerships with the private sector and civil society organisations.

Activities

SEforALL focuses on promoting partnerships through which concrete activities can be implemented. In the Women at the Forefront programme, SEforALL and partner organisations promote measures such as internships and mentoring programmes for girls and women, as well as opportunities for women to speak at business events .

The Sustainable Cooling Programme Providing policy recommendations, data and technical support to countries and partners to support cooling commitments in national cooling plans and NDCs, supporting financing and scaling up access to cooling solutions with integrated data, knowledge and communication tools .

In 2022, an updated Chilling Prospects will be produced to track the necessary access to chilling support and provide improved analysis to guide decision making.

Context

With the introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement, the global energy and climate policy framework changed at the end of 2015. The Austrian-based former UN initiative SEforALL was instrumental in the inclusion of its own Sustainable Development Goal for sustainable energy (SDG-7). The objectives of the supported programmes are to support SEforALL in fulfilling its mandate to mobilise decision-makers at all levels for the implementation of SDG-7.

The Austrian contribution supports in two specific programmes:

- Sustainable cooling: Inadequate cooling systems are a major challenge for many developing countries. Due to climate change and global warming, further efforts towards sustainable cooling solutions are needed.

- Empowering women in the energy sector: Women are underrepresented in the energy sector. The mentoring programme fosters women's careers in the renewable energy sector.