According to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, 2012 will be the year that sustainable energy goes worldwide. This week, Ban launched the UN’s International Year of Sustainable Energy for All, urging businesses and governments to quicken the adoption of energy efficiency standards, increase use of renewable energy, and help achieve universal energy access by 2030.
“Sustainable energy for all by 2030 is an enormous challenge,” Ban wrote in a New York Times op-ed this week. “But it is achievable. My vision is for a world with universal energy access coupled with significantly improved rates of energy efficiency and a doubling of renewable energy in our mix of fuel sources. The obstacles are not so much technical as human. We need to raise sustainable energy to the top of the global agenda and focus our attention, ingenuity, resources, and investments to make it a reality.”
(via GOOD)
Photo: Wind turbines on China’s Silk Road. (John Novis / Greenpeace)