Vienna, 8- 11 May 2017 - UNIDO ITPO Italy participated in the Vienna Energy Forum, Side Events and Plenary Session held in the premises of Vienna International Center (VIC) and the Hofburg Palace.

The objective of the mission was to receive information on the strategy to achieved Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all, committed in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

To achieve Goal 7 it is necessary to promote coordinate actions that consider the improvement of  the following sectors:  Energy Efficiency, Clean Cooking, Renewable Energy. 

The World Bank shared information that In 2014, 106 billion people still lived without access to electricity, the vast majority are from rural Africa.

Global electrification reached 85.3 % in 2014 and varies widely  across continents  in Europe, North America and Central Asia has been a reality and Latin America is not far behind, Arab Region and Asia-Pacific  are in the 90% rate but Africa excluding the North part of the continent is only with 37%.

Regarding the use of traditional cooking has become a major global health issue- 4 million premature deaths, primarily among women and children, are caused each year by inhaling carbon monoxide due to traditional biomass use in cookstoves. In 2014, 3.04 billion people lived without access to clean cooking. Across all Continents, access to clean cooking tends to lag behind electrification

The main findings during the mission were the need to develop policies for the promotion of Clean Energy that consider the food and water nexus as well to develop clean energy policies considering the different technologies, the importance to incorporate the financial sector and empowering women.