Written by Administrator Friday, 20 April 2012 15:22

Through its Energy Project, the Division promotes the adoption and use of clean, sustainable energy across the USA and abroad. Since January, the project has established a working group and organized or participated in several meetings in New York to promote this work.  The next meeting will take place on Monday, May 14.

The group first met on March 12 to discuss and clarify the following themes: NYC-related climate and energy issues, the energy project’s website, newspaper, social media- feeds and blogs, all of which present ideas on how to influence policy-making and how to bring the Energy Project to public institutions, such as universities and schools.

Members of this working group have participated in the following events:

March 6 – A Side Event to the Commission on the Status of Women, “Rural Women:  Energy, Health and Water,” focused on how important it is to empower women and ensure their rights. The speakers focused on 2012 as the UN Year for Sustainable Energy for All and on the relationship of energy to health and water.  One of the topics discussed was the importance of access to clean energy for cooking and its positive impact on especially women’s and children’s daily lives. Speakers included Dr.George Garland, Director of the Division’s Energy Project; Corinne Hart, Program Manager, Gender and Markets, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves; Dr.David Stillman, Executive Director, Public-Private Alliance Foundation; Mrs. Marcia Brewster, Senior Consultant for the Project; and Dr. Padamini Murthy, NGO Co-Representative to the UN of the Medical Women’s International Association.

March 24-25- US-Canada Citizens’ Summit for Sustainable Development. This event shared information and discussed topics such as ‘Energy access, efficiency and sustainability”, “Sustainable cities”, “Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture”, “Creative thinking for Sustainable Development”, “ The future of Urban Transportation”,  “ Making Environmental and Sustainability Issues Non-Partisan”, “ Developing New Indicators for Measuring Progress”, “Coalition Building Engagement and Mobilization for Rio+20”.

A joint delegation of members of the UNA Southern New York State Division (UNA-SNY) and Community Development International (CDi) attended the US/Canada Citizen’s Summit for Sustainable Development at Yale University. They included Matthias Resch, Coordinator of the Division’s Energy Project, Jennifer Irizarry, social media specialist with UNA-SNY and Kelcey Gosserand, a volunteer with CDi.

March 27- The European Affairs Committee of the Division’s Young Professionals hosted a panel on Renewable Energy and Policy in the EU and the US. Academics, business people and members of the diplomatic community spoke, including Carolyn Kissane (New York University), Marty Barruso ( Medesco, LLC),and Johannes Urpelainen ( Columbia University). They provided an overview of geographical and sector-related data in the EU and USA, on renewable and investment trajectories, as well as highlighting the key difference in policies and providing an outlook on the upcoming Rio+20 Conference in June.  David Stillman (Public-Private Alliance Foundation and UNA-SNY) spoke about a project to develop clean cookstoves and clean fuels in Haiti.

For further information about the USA-SNY Energy Project and the events mentioned above, you can email unaenergy@unasouther​nny.org and check and subscribe to our blog, http://unaenergy.wordpress.com/.  You can also subscribe to our Twitter handle:  @UNAEnergy .