Fostering sustainable energy is a priority for the United Nations, but does the world body give civil society and the private sector enough of a say in the process?
Not yet, according to Kandeh K. Yumkella, U.N. undersecretary-general and head of Sustainable Energy for All, an initiative that hopes to create a partnership involving governments, business and civil society to make universal access to sustainable energy sources a reality by 2030.
“We all say we want public-private partnerships, but in the [U.N.] Charter today, the private sector cannot be in a decision-making role,” Yumkella said Thursday during a panel discussion at the Frontiers in Development Forum organized by the U.S. Agency for International Development in Washington, D.C.