The Committee on Sustainable Energy’s activities are conceived with a view to ensuring access to affordable and clean energy to all and to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon footprint of the energy sector. Under its current programme, UNECE has begun developing normative instruments, including its work on standards and best practice guidances in energy efficiency, renewable energy, natural gas and methane. Proper management of methane from source to use will be an effective means of reducing emissions of an intensive greenhouse gas. UNECE is helping countries improve management of their natural endowments through the United Nations Framework Classification (UNFC), an internationally applicable scheme for classifying and reporting energy and mineral reserves and resources and has recently published recommendations to policy makers on carbon capture and storage.
In the longer term and to affirm its value added, UNECE will need to continue and expand its work in three critical areas: reconciling the reality of fossil fuels’ enduring share of the energy mix with the need to address climate change, enhancing integration of the region’s energy markets, and facilitating the transition to a sustainable energy system. The transition to a new, sustainable and reliable energy system can be accelerated if member States implement in a concrete fashion the measures called for in the Hammamet Declaration. The programme of the UNECE's Committee on Sustainable Energy will therefore continue to aim to:
In the longer term and to affirm its value added, UNECE will need to continue and expand its work in three critical areas: reconciling the reality of fossil fuels’ enduring share of the energy mix with the need to address climate change, enhancing integration of the region’s energy markets, and facilitating the transition to a sustainable energy system. The transition to a new, sustainable and reliable energy system can be accelerated if member States implement in a concrete fashion the measures called for in the Hammamet Declaration. The programme of the UNECE's Committee on Sustainable Energy will therefore continue to aim to:
- improve energy efficiency from source to use
- measure and correct energy market failures
- facilitate economic integration and cooperation and promote sustainable development
- reduce energy and carbon intensities
- minimize the impact of the energy sector on the environment from source to use
- ensure that energy production, conversion and use is cost competitive
- enhance cost-effective attainment of environmental goals through:
-technology, including cost effective renewable energy and carbon capture and storage
-raised full cost awareness
-increased capacity
-raised full cost awareness
-increased capacity
- innovate constructively across the board in the organization of society, industry, and government
- facilitate exchange of experience and expertise through dialogue and networking among the UN Member States, industry, NGOs and IGOs, academia, and the general public on energy matters.
The Committee and its six subsidiary bodies will carry out concrete and results-oriented activities with the aim to achieve the specific objectives identified for each priority area and they will work in accordance with the “Guidelines on procedures and practices for ECE bodies” as adopted by the Commission session on 11 April 2013. Areas of work cover energy efficiency, cleaner electricity production from fossil fuels, renewable energy, coal mine methane, United Nations Framework Classification, and natural gas. The Committee will continue its energy security dialogue.