Meeting on the sidelines of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly, the ENERGYNOW SDG7 Action Forum addressed the nexus of health, food security, climate change, and energy, among others. The summary report was published on the IISD Earth Negotiations Bulletin website.
Summary report, 24–25 September 2025
With just five years until 2030 and discussions on the post-2030 development agenda already getting underway, only 35% of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets are on track or making moderate progress, while nearly half are progressing too slowly. SDG7 – ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all – is considered essential for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its SDGs. There is also widespread recognition that the global community must focus on the interconnectedness of the SDGs, rather than approaching them in silos, in order to make significant progress by 2030.
However, progress on SDG7 targets has been insufficient, with energy poverty, increasing demand, and the need for rapid decarbonization continuing to present major challenges. More than 660 million people still lack access to basic electricity, 85% of whom are in Africa. At the same time, around two billion people lack access to clean cooking – around one-quarter of the global population. Without accelerating the scale up of clean cooking, the world will fall short of its 2030 target.
SDG7, in particular, cannot be addressed in isolation, particularly given its links to issues of gender, human health, economic growth, and climate change. SDG7 is also critical for meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change. The UN General Assembly (UNGA) decision in 2024 to extend the UN Decade of Sustainable Energy for All until 2030 is intended to keep energy at the center of global sustainable development efforts.
Within this context, the ENERGYNOW SDG7 Action Forum 2025 served as an important platform to review progress, sustain momentum, and drive ambitious action, particularly in the lead-up to the third review of SDG7 at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in 2026 (the final review of SDG7 before 2030) and the SDG Summit in 2027, which will help shape the direction of sustainable development beyond 2030.
While focusing on remaining challenges, the Action Forum, which consisted of a high-level segment, three plenary sessions, and eight parallel sessions, also highlighted successes. For example, USD 1.6 trillion in investment has been pledged by 2030 through “Energy Compacts,” voluntary commitments by states, businesses, and other actors and entities to advance global clean energy goals. The Energy Compacts, launched in 2021, now number over 200 commitments.
The Third Global Report on Climate and SDG Synergies was also presented at the Action Forum. This new report highlights that synergistic allocation of funds could reduce total government spending by up to 40%. It also draws attention to various other benefits resulting from synergistic policies and actions.
Action Forum sessions addressed: innovative and dynamic projects being implemented by African youth; advances made on gender data in sustainable energy; considerations related to ensuring AI systems are efficient, clean, and inclusive; work at the water-energy nexus in fields such as agroindustry and utilities; and action that can be taken to mainstream gender into energy and development planning.
The ENERGYNOW SDG7 Action Forum 2025 took place from 24-25 September 2025, in New York City. It brought together representatives of governments, civil society, the private sector, academia, international organizations, and UN agencies. It was organized by UN-Energy, supported by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), and was held on the sidelines of the 80th session of UN General Assembly. UN-Energy is a consortium of nearly thirty UN agencies and international organizations that collaborate on various aspects of energy with the aim of catalyzing achievement of SDG7 by 2030, and net-zero emissions by 2050.
A Brief History of the ENERGYNOW SDG7 Action Forum
In September 2021, UN Secretary-General António Guterres convened a High-Level Dialogue on Energy to promote implementation of energy-related goals and targets for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including SDG7 on affordable and clean energy for all. The Dialogue, which marked the first UN General Assembly event on energy in 40 years, garnered the participation of 130 Heads of State and Government, and many global multi-stakeholder leaders. A key outcome of the Dialogue was the “Energy Compacts” – voluntary commitments from Member States and other stakeholders, to take action to accelerate the energy transition and to achieve universal energy access, with clear tracking frameworks towards 2030. To date, around 200 of these Energy Compacts have been mobilized. The Dialogue also resulted in the UN Secretary-General’s Global Roadmap for Accelerated SDG7 Action, launched in November 2021. The Global Roadmap sets out the milestones needed to achieve a radical transformation of energy access and transition by 2030.
UN DESA, which served as the Dialogue’s Secretariat, convened the first ENERGYNOW SDG7 Action Forum in September 2022, bringing together a range of stakeholders to take stock of progress on the Energy Compact commitments, discuss opportunities and remaining challenges, and consider further ways to accelerate energy access and the energy transition. Eight roundtables focused on the global context, accelerating SDG7 action, and partnerships for action. During a closing session, participants reflected on the findings of the Energy Compacts Annual Report 2022, including that, one year after the Compacts were launched, 51% had reported progress.
The ENERGYNOW SDG7 Action Forum 2023 convened more than 15 events in September 2023, on the sidelines of the 78th session of UNGA. Events addressed topics such as mobilizing climate finance for powering health care, clean cooking, gender, the 24/7 Carbon Free Energy Compact, and global synergies for climate action and the SDGs, among others, and launched the Energy Compacts Annual Report 2023.
The ENERGYNOW SDG7 Action Forum 2024 took place from 25-27 September 2024 in New York on the sidelines of the 79th session of UNGA and just after the Summit of the Future. Twenty sessions focused on advancing progress on SDG7 and the global energy agenda towards 2030 and beyond. Sessions addressed various topics, including: themes related to energizing sustainable development, including a session on distributing renewable energy technologies in rural and remote areas; creating pathways for investments, including a high-level ministerial segment on how to ensure that critical mineral resources in Africa benefit Africans, instead of being exported; and accelerating a just and inclusive energy transition, with sessions on universal energy access, digitalization, and gender. The Energy Compacts Annual Progress Report 2024 was also launched.
Report of the ENERGYNOW SDG7 Action Forum 2025
Minoru Takada, UN-Energy Secretary, UN DESA, opened the Forum on Wednesday morning, 24 September, noting progress on SDG7 regarding universal access to green energy, increasing renewable energy, improving energy efficiency, and innovative financing solutions. He highlighted upcoming milestones toward the HLPF 2026, which will include a final pre-2030 review of progress on SDG7. He also invited ideas for a post-2030 framework.
The report below summarizes the discussions in the three plenary sessions, eight parallel sessions, and high-level segment, starting with the plenary sessions.
Mobilizing a Final Push on SDG7 and Roadmap Towards the SDG7 Review at HLPF 2026
This plenary session was organized by UN-Energy and the SDG 7 Technical Advisory Group (TAG) and moderated by Riad Meddeb, Director, Sustainable Energy Hub, UNDP. Meddeb said green investment must nearly double to USD 600 billion a year by 2030 to maintain projects at the required level. He noted energy poverty as the biggest constraint on socioeconomic transformation, lamenting the huge “development divide” in which countries export raw materials and must then import renewables processed from them. He said AI and digital centers will consume as much power as Canada and the UK combined by 2030, but added that, if managed properly, AI could enhance efficiency and assist a just transition. He explained that every dollar invested in renewable energy delivers four dollars in health, food security, education, and livelihoods. He called for discussions on, among others, reinventing international cooperation to offset declining ODA, and aligning policies to make energy available and affordable for all.
Daniel Schroth, Director, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Department, African Development Bank (AfDB), discussed country-level actions that could free up “fiscal space” or a government’s financial flexibility to spend on priority areas. As fiscal budgets are limited, he questioned how to bring in the private sector, particularly in African countries, and how to tap into institutional capital, noting Africa’s USD 455 billion in pension funds. He urged establishing national sovereign wealth funds so they can play a role in financing infrastructure projects.
Annika Blakstad Otterstedt, Assistant Director General, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), said we need to do a better job at ensuring the global financial system understands risk and opportunities at the local level. She emphasized bringing electricity and the green transition to all regions, and identified energy as one of the most important tools to ensure that development benefits all people and communities. She also stressed adopting a gender perspective and ensuring accessibility to all.
Rana Ghoneim, Director, Division of Energy and Climate Action, UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), discussed: opportunities for developing and emerging economies; diversifying the supply chain; and creating value closer to where demand is. She explained that some barriers are climate related. Pointing to links with SDG7, she emphasized SDG9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure) as the engine for economic growth. She drew attention to the Energy Efficiency for Sustainable Livelihoods in Africa (EELA) Program, launched by UNIDO and Sida.
Future Energy Discussions Beyond 2030
This plenary session took place on Wednesday afternoon. It was moderated by Hans Olav Ibrekk, Special Envoy for Climate and Security, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and SDG7 TAG Co-Facilitator, who emphasized that energy is a growing geopolitical issue. Minoru Takada summarized past and potential future milestones on SDG7.
Morgan Bazilian, Director of the Payne Institute for Public Policy, Colorado School of Mines, noted that current rapid political, social, and economic changes, including tariffs and continuing global population growth, are driving changes in energy use. He urged tying energy to poverty and households rather than to industrial power loads. He commended massive imports of Chinese photovoltaics into Africa, but also suggested manufacturing them in Africa, given that Sub-Saharan Africa is well endowed with the necessary minerals. He raised AI as a critical emerging issue to be included in any post-2030 framework, saying that in five years data centers will be powered by natural gas.
Rana Adib, Executive Director, REN21, lamented that phasing out fossil fuels was not an SDG7 target and called for raising awareness, building political momentum, mobilizing all relevant stakeholders, and addressing energy access in urban planning and industrialization. She called for shifting to a renewables-based economy through addressing structural barriers, embracing complexity and uncertainty, and developing new rules collaboratively. She noted opportunities presented by the UN Decade of Sustainable Transportation 2026-2035. Adib called renewable energy the least cost option and an economic decision, as the cost can be controlled, and it is resilient to shocks. She commented that 20% of Kenyan households run on solar photovoltaics (PV) from China, which is cheap and more reliable than grids.
Sheila Oparaocha, Co-Facilitator of the SDG7 TAG and Executive Director of ENERGIA International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy, reiterated that SDG7 helps deliver on other SDGs. She highlighted energy quality as well as access, and supported a gender target for energy in the post-2030 development agenda. She noted that during the review of SDG5 (gender equality) at HLPF 2025, all five energy custodian agencies, along with UN-Women and civil society representatives, agreed that including gender in global energy reporting was critical.
Dhruvak Aggarwal, Programme Lead, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), called for exploring how data is used to communicate and engage with consumers. On clean electricity, he highlighted focusing on how to expand grids and utilize land, questioning how to spread electricity’s cost across sectors.
To a question from an audience member on why hydropower has not been addressed, responses pointed to its ecological impact, impracticality in shipping and aviation, and issues with storage, transmission, and distribution.
In conclusion, Hans Olav Ibrekk urged finding synergies and adopting a simple post-2030 framework that policymakers and ministers can understand.
Promoting Synergies for Accelerated Progress towards the SDGs and the Paris Agreement
This Thursday plenary session focused on work being undertaken by the Expert Group on Climate and SDG Synergies, co-convened by UN DESA and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to quantify the co-benefits for governments and others to tackle the climate and sustainable development crises synergistically.
Welcome Remarks by the Co-Convenors: Navid Hanif, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, UN DESA, highlighted the recent launch of the third Global Report on Climate and SDG Synergies, highlighting that 80% of the SDGs are tied to climate action. He said climate and development strategies and planning must be integrated, particularly on such issues as energy, food systems, and transportation.
James Grabert, Director, Mitigation Division, UNFCCC, underscored work supported by the UNFCCC and UN DESA on SDG-climate synergies since 2022. He said the findings of the Report can inspire real world action to reduce trade-offs, work across silos, use resources more effectively, and focus on practical entry points such as energy, health, and gender.
2025 Global Report on Climate and SDGs Synergies: Presentation of Key Findings and Recommendations by the Report’s Co-Leads: Luis Gomez Echeverri, Emeritus Research Scholar and Senior Advisor, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), and Co-Lead, Expert Group on Climate and SDG Synergies, said the focus of the third global report on synergies is on quantifying the benefits of synergies, noting three entry-point thematic reports on nature-based climate solutions, disaster insurance, and climate action by cities. He underscored the importance of this moment as countries introduce new climate commitments. He also highlighted key messages, including that evidence guides effective action and synergies will be central to informing a post-2030 development framework through unlocking efficiencies at scale.
Elena Rovenskaya, Program Director and Principal Research Scholar, IIASA, pointed to an estimated 40% in savings in government expenditures resulting from synergies between climate and development policies. She described the modeling exercise used to estimate the savings, through using selected development and climate targets.
Interactive Dialogue: Key Entry Points for Synergistic Action: Bahareh Seyedi, UN DESA, moderated the dialogue. Kaveh Guilanpour, Vice President for International Strategies, Centre for Climate and Energy Solutions and Expert Group on Climate and SDG Synergies, said countries’ national climate strategies must now serve as their development strategies. He marked a shift, from referring to SDGs at UNFCCC COPs only after outcomes had been negotiated, to referring to SDG synergies in the Just Transition Work Programme text currently under negotiation for COP 30. He predicted that developed countries will not increase their development assistance, calling instead for aligning the USD 1.3 trillion already targeted for climate action under the Paris Agreement. He said the Climate Action Agenda should be aligned with the Global Stocktake (GST) under the Paris Agreement, stressing development as a core part of such an alignment.
Malcolm Dalesa, Climate Attaché, Permanent Mission of Vanuatu to the UN, emphasized Vanuatu’s vulnerability and its development pathway to boost resilience. He said the ambitious targets in its NDC produce synergies across such areas as health, gender, and economic transformation. On financing, he mentioned Vanuatu’s National Green Energy Fund, which blends mostly public and donor financing for clean energy, noting that private sector financing will also be blended into it.
George Gray Molina, Head of Inclusive Growth and Chief Economist, UNDP, said an integration process is needed to create policy coherence between NDCs and financing and other frameworks. He said 50% of climate financing comes from the private sector, particularly for renewables, transportation, and energy efficiency in buildings. He called for revitalizing planning and observed that investments in energy transition and social protections are finally bearing fruit.
Kashvi Chandok, Climate and Energy Fellow, Third Way, and SDG7 Youth Constituency, said the private sector needs incentives for involvement. She called for mechanisms for risk sharing and public/private sector collaboration, particularly given that climate change perils are now of significant importance. She called young people “the vocal cords of the climate movement,” calling for efforts to remobilize them despite their recent skepticism.
In ensuing discussion, participants noted: insurers’ lack of interest in funding communities on the front lines; a disconnect between work at the global and grassroots levels and the need for translatable outcomes; sectors and communities that are not generating bankable outcomes; the role of youth from Vanuatu in the recent advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice; government’s regulatory role in ensuring corporations’ profits are within the goals of the Paris Agreement; and the need to expand existing knowledge and data to inform policymaking processes and share knowledge and best practices on climate and SDG synergies.
In closing, Seyedi underscored further connecting the intergovernmental SDG and climate processes.
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