International Day of Clean Energy 2024

The 26^th of January 2024 will mark the first-ever International Day of Clean Energy, which has been established by the United Nations General Assembly as an effort to provide a dedicated occasion to showcase innovations and progress that can accelerate the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. Two particular goals in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda that the International Day of Clean Energy can assist with are affordable and clean energy and climate action.

AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY

By this stage in the path towards sustainable energy, we can all agree that affordable and clean energy relies heavily on enough resources to change from traditional power methods to methods that create less impact on the environment. The International Day of Clean Energy will become a platform for governments across the globe to showcase their efforts, share their ideas and start making a positive surge towards sustainable energy that will benefit the global community.

For the average person, the initial set-up of an entire off-the-grid power system is not affordable. However, governments and municipalities have the upper hand in being able to change over from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources or to subsidise those who opt for cleaner energy sources. What the International Day of Clean Energy will do, is create a platform for world leaders to explore the options available to them, as well as find innovative ways to assist their citizens with the means to incorporate sustainable energy into their daily lives without the initial high costs involved.

CLIMATE ACTION

We’ve been aware of the harm that comes from burning fossil fuels for decades. A vast majority of us were taught from a young age that we need to take action to preserve our environment. The concept of climate change started as early as 1938, when amateur scientist Guy Callendar noted a rise in global temperatures over 50 years, although many can agree that the shocking discovery of a hole in the ozone layer in 1985 is what drew our attention to how our daily behaviours affect our environment.

Our energy sources are one of the leading causes of climate change, the burning of fossil fuels to provide electricity has been a prime contributor to the rapid change in climate over the past two centuries.

While we are all quite versed in the changes that do need to be made to sustain our planet, we are undoing hundreds of years’ worth of damage that is increasing faster than we can implement a remedy. We hope that an occasion like International Day of Clean Energy will become the platform for fast transformation and more support towards assisting the global community with the means and resources to make the change in their energy sources.