Posted on : 11/1/2016

The Seventh International Forum on Energy for Sustainable Development was held in Baku, Azerbaijan on 18-21 October 2016. It was jointly organized by the Government of Azerbaijan, the United Nations Regional Commissions, the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency (C2E2), and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21). The Seventh Forum combined a high-level session with plenary sessions, parallel workshops and site visits over four days. The Forum assembled some 300 international energy experts, government officials, and representatives from the business community, financial sector, academia and civil society to share perspectives on how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other aspirational pledges such as the Paris Agreement on climate change can be implemented. It also included an International Renewable Energy Conference and the annual sessions of the UNECE Group of Experts on Renewable Energy and Group of Experts on Energy Efficiency for the first time.

The objective of the Seventh International Forum on Energy for Sustainable Development was to explore how to deliver on the national commitments, such as the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs, which would then become NDCs) in support of achieving the climate change mitigation and adaptation goals outlined in the Paris Agreement, including investment in renewable energy as a means of reducing the carbon intensity of energy sector. The potential solutions to be agreed at an Energy Ministerial at the outset of the Eighth International Forum on Energy for Sustainable Development in Astana, Kazakhstan, on 11 June 2017, as a major stepping stone in the history of this international fora process, was also discussed in the frame of Baku Forum.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has supported the participation of Serbian delegation in the Forum. Assistant Minister of Mining and Energy Mr Milos Banjac, in his capacity as a vice chair of UNECE Group of Experts on Renewable Energy, presented at the Renewable Energy Conference, the institutional and legal framework of Serbia in the field of renewable energy. Mrs. Antonela Solujic, the head of Energy Efficiency Department of the Ministry of Mining and Energy presented at the session of Group of Experts on Energy Efficiency, the current status of implementation of energy efficiency projects in Serbia.

UNDP Portfolio Manager for Energy, Maja Matejic presented at the Renewable Energy Conference results of the UNDP/GEF Project “Reducing Barriers to Accelerate the Development of Biomass Markets in Serbia” which have been achieved so far.