- Alle bør få tilgang til energi

For youth, access to energy is important, especially for the following reasons:

• Access to energy contributes to poverty reduction, industrial development and growth. This provides jobs for many people, including youth.
• Access to energy is important for education, we all know that light is essential for doing homework and studying after dark.
• Electricity gives easy and efficient access to information and communication through the internet.
• Without access to internet, youth cannot use their right to freedom of speech on a global level.
• Energy access improves social services, health services, patient care and hospital facilities. This is important for all people, including youth, in order to live safe and secure lives.
• 2.7 billion people live without access to clean cooking facilities, and this leads to millions of deaths every year. Household energy use must be addressed in the new developing agenda in order to save lives.
• Access to energy liberates time, especially for women and children, time that young women in particular can spend on education. This contributes to better gender equality.
• Energy access is essential for food security. Proper conservation and cooking of food is not possible without energy.

Based on these arguments, we strongly recommend that energy for all should be included in the new development agenda. In order to reach energy for all, we especially ask you take note of the following:

• There is a lot of energy produced today, but it is not accessible to everyone. There are large inequalities between the rich and poor. We, the youth from Tanzania and Norway, challenge you, the leaders of today, to address this issue.
• In Tanzania we have learned that fuel prices are very high and there are strong limitations to chopping down firewood, leaving the poor in a squeeze. Policies must reflect needs of the people and the environment.
• In order for developing countries to increase their energy consumption, the developed countries must highly reduce their use of energy. In Norway the efforts to increase energy efficiency are far from enough. We demand strong national and international policies and laws to reduce energy consumption. In order to ensure that these laws are being followed there is a need for an international tribunal for energy and environment.
• Resources must be spent on research on renewable and sustainable solutions. Not only will this provide us with the best solutions on wind, wave, solar and other new technologies. It will also provide jobs for the youth. Governments should prioritize the education of energy specialists.
• If done right, energy can contribute to solve the climate change problem. But one cannot develop the use of green energy without energy itself.
• Governments should make forums for youth, where we get listened to. The post2015 is a step in the right direction.
• We appreciate the effort by the UN in the process of making a new development agenda. We note that youth are able to participate online, but as 1.3 billion people live without access to energy, many young voices are excluded from the discussion. We hereby challenge you to find a way of including everyone.