Energy for all

The conference is being co-organised by Norway and the International Energy Agency (IEA). Crown Prince Haakon participated, together with Norway’s Minister of the Environment and International Development, Erik Solheim, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, and the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Rynning-Tønnesen participated in a panel discussion about the role of climate finance in meeting the energy access challenge.
“A transition to renewable energy is the most important measure to combat climate change and at the same time improve access to energy”, Rynning-Tønnesen stated in his address to the audience.

Rynning-Tønnesen referred to the Statkraft Group’s experience with investments in large scale renewable energy projects in emerging economies.
“Even when profitability was low due to high costs, high risk and immature power markets. In these projects, the importance of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) as a UN-backed and EU funded market for CERs, has been crucial”, Rynning-Tønnesen said.

“A transition to renewable energy will need large commercial investments. Releasing these investments is a huge common challenge, and the Energy+ initiative presented by the prime Minister is a good step forward by focusing on engaging private sector, reducing risk and increasing access to capital.”

A sustainable initiative

The International Energy and Climate Initiative, Energy+, was launched by the Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg at the beginning of the conference. The initiative will reach its goals through increased use of renewable energy and through energy efficiency.

"New energy investments must be results-based. We already have experiences from our support to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation that this creates the right incentives", said Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

“We must create a political momentum for the goal of energy for all. To reach the goal we need doubling of energy efficiency and a doubling of the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix by 2030.“ , said Ban Ki-moon at the opening of the conference.

Representatives from more than 60 countries, international organizations, business and civil society organizations took part in the conference.