UN chief to unveil new action plan for sustainable energy for all initiative

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will strengthen his commitment to achieving sustainable energy for all by announcing new leadership and implementation arrangements for his Sustainable Energy for All Initiative at a High-level event scheduled for Monday. The High-level event, taking place on the margins of the yearly General Assembly High-Level meeting, will bring together leaders from governments, international organizations, the private sector and civil society. Ban had set three interlinked objectives for Sustainable Energy for All to be achieved by 2030: providing universal access to modern energy services; doubling the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency; and doubling the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. Moreover, Ban is also scheduled to launch on Wednesday a major new Education initiative "Education First" to kick off with the announcement of new commitments for education. He will be joined at the High-Level launch by several Heads of State, business and civil society leaders, including President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, H.H Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser of Qatar, Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia and Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank. Following the launch, a panel discussion will feature Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, UNICEF Eminent Advocate for Children; Aung San Suu Kyi, Member of the Parliament of Myanmar and other eminent personalities. The aim of the launch is to give a final push to put education on top of the global agenda ahead of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals deadline. The dialogue will focus on Education First's three priority areas -- to get all children into school, to make sure they learn, and that what they learn is relevant for addressing today's global challenges -- and on ways to help shape the evolving discourse on education in the post-2015 development agenda. According to the UN, significant progress has been made, but the latest data shows a clear slow-down, and without a major effort, there is a real danger that more children will be out-of-school in 2015 than today