SEforALL and Google to launch an electricity decarbonisation coalition

The coalition is intended to comprise companies, governments and others interested in fully decarbonising their energy consumption.

The coalition is to be established with support from UN-Energy plans as a first goal to release an Energy Compact capturing Google’s ambition to operate on carbon-free energy on a 24/7 basis by 2030.

Companies, governments and other stakeholders who commit to the principles of 24/7 carbon-free energy are able to join the Compact and work together to enact the policies towards decarbonising electricity systems.

“This partnership with Google sends a powerful signal that none of us alone can achieve the scale necessary to tackle the double crisis of climate and energy poverty,” says Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and Special Representative to the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL).

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“The only hope we have to heal our planet and to provide opportunities for billions is together through partnerships like this that can pave the way for others to follow.”

The Energy Compact is a concept introduced by SEforALL to embody commitments from stakeholders with the actions they will take to advance progress on Sustainable Development Goal 7 on energy access for all and increased levels of renewable energy and energy efficiency.

The Compacts will be outcomes of the September High-level Dialogue on Energy, which is focussed on accelerating action to achieve the SDG7 energy targets with innovative solutions, increased investment and new partnerships. These will then be tracked and updated over the coming decade to 2030.

To date, the only other Compact on which information is available is the Green Hydrogen Compact to accelerate its production. The UN has targetted at least 25GW of green hydrogen capacity deployed by 2026 towards the delivery of up to 1,000GW by 2030.

The latest SDG7 tracking report suggests that the world is not on track to meeting the targets. While the share of people with access has grown up to 90%, still 759 million people lack access suggesting that the rate of electrification is only slightly exceeding the population growth. About 940 million people will have to be connected by 2030 to reach universal access, according to the report.

As an example, in Sub-Saharan Africa alone, this corresponds to connecting around 85 million people each year through 2030.