Tracking Progress Toward Providing Sustainable Energy For All In East Asia And The Pacific

The Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative is the global effort rallying action towards a transformation in the energy sector by the year 2030. With targets to increase energy use, expand energy efficiency, and ensure energy access for all, SE4All's priorities are tied closely to the challenges of developing Asia and the Pacific, which is confronting issues of energy sustainability, security, and widespread energy poverty. In the interest of combining efforts and resources to meet the challenge, the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific have partnered to act as the leading organizations for the SE4All Regional Hub for Asia and the Pacific. Together, they are supporting actions among developing countries in the region that will put them on track to transform their energy sectors, in line with SE4All. This report summarizes the initial activities of the Regional Hub, and contextualizes the challenges in Asia and the Pacific with the global efforts to reach the 2030 targets.

This report, developed by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in cooperation Asian Development Bank, offers an evidence-based look at progress at the regional and country level, providing an overview of long-term trends since 1990, and focuses on progress achieved in the most recent period, 2012-2014. Furthermore, it examines the key drivers behind progress, as well as identifies major challenges to achieving energy access, efficiency, and renewable energy objectives. Evidence is drawn from the Global Tracking Framework (GTF) data, as well as other international sources to provide a comprehensive view of progress in light of regional and national contexts. A strong focus is also placed on examining national policy frameworks and offering case studies to illustrate national approaches to common challenges faced by countries advancing the sustainable energy agenda.

This report, aimed at policy makers from Asia and the Pacific, provides a historical perspective on regional energy connectivity and its implementation challenges, as well as outlining an action plan for accelerated regional energy integration to bring shared benefits to ESCAP's member States. The report concludes that energy connectivity can increase the supply and reduce the cost of energy, while lowering its social and environmental costs and addressing the challenges of energy security. Regional cooperation in energy has been evolving mainly through five subregional clusters -- South-East Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, North-East Asia, and the Pacific. A great many resources have been spent on bringing the subregions together; however, overall results remain below the potential. One of the main reasons for the slow progress is the decision-making process for cross-border projects. Energy markets do not connect by themselves; in the next few decades, actions will be needed to build physical energy networks, institutional connectivity and, most importantly, trust between nations to meet the Region's two most important challenges -- overcoming energy poverty and mitigating climate change. Governments, policymakers, and experts must work together in partnership with the private sector to provide sustainable energy for all by 2050 by connecting Asian energy networks and building institutions of integration. ESCAP is in a unique position to lead such a transformative partnership for ensuring that regional energy connectivity creates incentive structures and institutions to deliver cost-effective energy for the entire Region. It is time to build energy connectivity for an interdependent Asia and the Pacific -- prosperous and connected -- thus ending Asian economic dependence on a single source or a single fuel.

This publication is the theme study for the 73rd session of Commission to be held in May 2017. The main purpose of the publication is to call on policymakers in Asia and the Pacific for urgent actions to transition national energy sectors to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), particularly Goal 7. The energy sector transition is the only way to address the sizeable energy deficit which impede progress in energy access in a number of member countries. It will also address gaps between current commitments under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change and lack of coherent energy strategic and policy frameworks and actions held back progress of SDG7.

The report finds that, overall, the achievement of all three SDG 7 goals is not on track, and that efforts need to be accelerated if the UNECE region is to achieve the SDG 7 targets by 2030. The report further introduces the Energy for Sustainable Development framework that highlights energy as the golden thread linking energy-related Sustainable Development Goals across the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The framework analysis leads to the conclusion that a broader set of energy indicators is required to track energy for sustainable development comprehensively, including indicators covering climate, fossil fuels, and water related metrics, among others.