Global leaders will gather in New York next week for the UN Summit of the Future, the centrepiece of this year’s launch of the annual United Nations General Assembly. UN Secretary General, António Guterres, will try to persuade world leaders to extend their horizons beyond current wars by adopting a “Pact for the Future,” an international agreement to address climate change, future pandemics, inequalities, and economic instability. The Summit comes at a crucial time. As of 2024, almost half of the Sustainable Development Goals are making little progress, and more than a third are falling behind. The summit aims to unite countries in tackling issues like climate change, which affects 3.6 billion people, and rising inequalities, with 700 million people still living in extreme poverty. Organisers are calling it a “once-in-a-generation opportunity“, aiming to strengthen global governance for the sake of present and future generations. Let’s hope it succeeds. It really needs to.
More than US$ 650 billion a year in public subsidies goes to fossil fuel companies, intensive agriculture and other harmful industries in the developing world, new data from Action Aid has shown. In its report, ActionAid finds that across developing countries, the fossil fuel sector has been receiving a shocking annual average of US$ 438.6 bn a year in publicly financed subsidies, between 2016 (when the Paris Agreement was signed) and 2023. Renewable energy in developing countries is receiving 40 times less public finance than the fossil fuel sector. Furthermore, the industrial agriculture sector has benefited from publicly financed subsidies worth a staggering US$ 238 bn a year on average, in the years between 2016 and 2021 (the last year of available data). By contrast, developing countries are receiving only a fraction of those sums in climate finance, which would help them to move away from dirty and polluting industries towards a clean and low-carbon economy.
In the context of COP29 in Azerbaijan in November, there is a global call to the UNFCCC to include cultural heritage, the arts and creative sectors in climate policy. While several years old, the InterAmerican Development Bank wrote the blog Translating Climate Change into music: the Caribbean way. It gives some great examples of how music in the Caribbean speaks about climate change.
To ensure that the zero carbon energy transition gains momentum we need a new generation of experts to continue the good work. EiD encourages all young researchers (born after 1989) in energy efficiency and biomass to submit contributions for next year’s Young Energy Researchers Conference on March 5th as part of World Sustainable Energy Days, March 5-8, 2025 in Wels, Austria. Altogether there are six conferences and a tradeshow packed into the four days. The theme of this year’s energy efficiency conference is “2025: Competitive, collective, climate-neutral!” Submissions for the young energy researchers conference are invited from any scientific field (e.g. technology, engineering, economics, social sciences, architecture, law, arts) and must be in English only. The deadline for submissions is October 10th. Rod is a member of the scientific committee for the young researchers’ conference.
In planning travel over the upcoming weeks, here is some useful ideas to help you along:
- Lonely Planet’s train expert provides his top 5 rail journeys in Europe for 2024.
- According to Euronews, starting in February next year, the new European Sleeper train will travel between Brussels and Venice, passing through nine different cities.
- For the best hikes in Europe in 2024, there are many good suggestions on the 57 hours website. For those who want to combine hiking with food and wine, check out the Hedonistic Hiking website.
- Climbing House provides the 11 Top Climbing Spots in Europe.
- Epic Road Rides provides their choice of the best places to cycle in September and October.
- The Guardian provides 15 tips for the reluctant camper to love life beneath the stars.
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), the Russian novelist and philosopher, regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time, gives us something important to reflect on this week: “There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.”
EiD welcomes your views about this week’s selection of posts on the zero-carbon energy transition:
- New EEA briefing on the use of “forever chemicals”
- A “how to” guide for climate scientists to use and understand justice language
- In Canada there is a long line of organisations created by the fossil fuel industry to target women
- Learning lessons from Europe and elsewhere for Australia to fast-track renewables deployment
- Identifying the fuel poor in Britain
- Manufacturing facilities have a golden opportunity to reduce costs, improve productivity and embrace digital transformation to achieve their energy-efficient goals with artificial intelligence
- Putting climate change in perspective
- In data since 1354, Burgundy can trace the impact of climate change
Please send your comments on any of the posts. Please follow us on X at @EnergyDemand and @rodjanssen. Please recommend EiD to your friends and colleagues.
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Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 