Sustainable Energy for All

OPEC Fund Director General Abdulhamid Alkhalifa: "We value our partnership with SEforALL very highly.  As we begin this new decade, with 2030 growing ever closer, we look forward to working together to ensure sustainable energy for all."

Sustainable Energy for All’s inspiring new CEO Damilola Ogunbiyi drew attention to the big energy challenges of the coming decade at the OPEC Fund headquarters February 13, 2020. 

Ogunbiyi, who is the new Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All, called for clean modern energy for the 840 million people around the world still without access to electricity, and for the three billion people relying primarily on inefficient and polluting cooking systems. 

Ogunbiyi made a powerful presentation to ambassadors and high-level representatives from around the world and emphasized the particular need to focus on data and finance in support of SDG 7 on energy.

The lunch event was hosted by the OPEC Fund’s Director-General Dr Abdulhamid Alkhalifa and Ambassador Gabriela Sellner, Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations in Vienna. Ambassadors and high-level representatives from countries including Algeria, China, Ecuador, Italy, Kenya, Kuwait, Libya. Nigeria, Poland, Russia and more were in attendance. 

Director-General of the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) LI Yong emphasized his intention to work closely with partners to help achieve SDG 7, as did many other attendees.

SEforAll CEO Damilola Ogunbiyi: "International development financing institutions like the OPEC Fund are the ones that can really bring the scalability that’s needed in support of SDG7."