International Day of Clean Energy
31 January 2024
Message of UN Secretary-General António Guterres
Clean energy is the gift that keeps giving: It can purify polluted air; meet growing energy demand; secure supplies; and connect billion of people to affordable power -- helping to ensure electricity access to all by 2030.
That is all while saving money and saving the planet.
A fair, just, equitable and urgent transition from dirty fossil fuels to clean energy is essential to avoid the worst of climate chaos and spur sustainable development.
So, I celebrate this first International Day of Clean Energy; I applaud the work of the International Renewable Energy Agency; and I welcome the call made by countries at COP28 [twenty-eighth Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030.
It is my firm belief that fossil fuel phase-out is not only necessary, it is inevitable.
But we need Governments to act, to accelerate the transition, with the biggest emitters leading the way.
That means unleashing a surge in climate finance -- particularly Governments reforming the business model of multilateral development banks so that affordable finance flows.
It means countries creating new national climate plans by 2025 that map a fair and just transition to clean power.
And it means Governments closing the door on the fossil fuel era -- with justice and equity.
Our clean energy future is unstoppable. Together, let’s bring it into being faster.
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