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In a high level presentation to the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) Forum, the Global Fuel Economy Initiative has highlighted the need for further collaboration to achieve a global target on vehicle fuel economy which would save trillions of dollars, improve energy security and help combat climate change.
The GFEI is a ‘High Impact Opportunity’ for the UN Secretary General’s SE4ALL coalition and its leading initiative on fuel economy. GFEI, which is coordinated by the FIA Foundation, is also an energy efficiency accelerator for the UN’s September 2014 Climate Summit.
In its contribution to the UN’s sustainable energy agenda, the GFEI provides a way to reconcile legitimate aspirations for mobility, and the economic benefits this brings, with an ambitious reduction in fuel use and CO2 from vehicles.
Speaking at the UN at the SE4ALL Forum on 5 June, FIA Foundation Director of Environment and Research Sheila Watson said:
“GFEI is making a key contribution to the global agenda on sustainable energy. We know that the world is facing a huge growth in the global vehicle fleet, which will be tripling between now and 2050. Trillions of dollars will spent on vehicles and fuels over the next decades and we must influence this. If no action is taken, we face a fuel economy crisis. With economic and environmental pressures, we need to make dramatic reductions in vehicle fuel consumption. What we need to see, and are working towards is a global partnership to take this agenda forward.”
The annual Sustainable Energy for All Forum brought together high-level participants from governments, international organizations, civil society and NGOs in support of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s initiative on Sustainable Energy for All. Alongside the UN Secretary General, other high level speakers at the Forum included: Kandeh Yumkella, UN Special Representative, Sustainable Energy for All, Rajendra Pachauri Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Helen Clark UN Development Programme Administrator, Naoko Ishii, CEO of the Global Environment Facility and Andris Piebalgs, European Commissioner for Development.
The event followed the publication of the ‘Zero Draft’ of recommendations for the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals. The group of governments meeting at the UN to draft the proposals included a target on doubling energy efficiency, to which GFEI can make a key contribution.
The SE4ALL Forum, over three days, is assessing progress on billions of dollars made in commitments at the Rio+20 and identify innovative and practical solutions needed to meet the initiative’s objectives – universal energy access, renewable energy and energy efficiency.
In 2012, at the Rio+20 Summit, governments and private investors launched new energy strategies and pledged more than USD 50 billion in support of the initiative on and its targets of providing modern energy access, doubling the share of global renewable energy by 2030 and doubling the rate of energy efficiency.
In line with the energy efficiency objective, the GFEI wants to see global new car fuel consumption cut by 50% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels and the same reduction across the global fleet by 2050. Such a move would save over 6 billion barrels of oil per year by 2050, and close to half of CO2 emissions from cars, and all using existing, cost effective technologies.
The central focus of the debates at the Forum by the participants including the GFEI were on growing the SE4ALL movement, catalysing investment through innovative business solutions, sharing knowledge and experiences, developing capacity building and accelerating country action in communities where it is most needed.
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Click here to download the GFEI’s Post-2015 agenda on fuel economy >
