President Macky Sall's candidacy for the office of UN Secretary-General rests on concrete experience of the energy transition. In June 2023, under his presidency, Senegal signed with international partners one of the world's first just energy transition partnerships.
An agreement costed, dated, signed. The partnership mobilised 2.5 billion euros of financing and set a course: raising to 40% the share of renewables in the country's electricity mix by 2030. The transition there rests on a timetable and on means to match it, within reach of anyone who wishes to check.
A transition that leaves no one out. A country that still counts households without electricity cannot decarbonise by slowing its development. The justice of the transition rests on that requirement: financing access to energy in the same movement that decarbonises it. Senegal defended that line in the forums where climate finance is negotiated.
A precedent useful to the Organization. What Senegal negotiated, other countries can take up. The Secretary-General does not sign these agreements, but can spread the method: measurable targets, committed financing, public follow-up. The United Nations gain in credibility by showing what keeps its promises.
Experience in running a state. Twelve years as head of state and the chairmanship of the African Union in 2022 underpin these commitments. That experience explains why the vision statement filed with the United Nations frames its proposals as obligations: peace, security and development conceived together; a renewed multilateralism; stronger governance of the Organization.
Africa at its heart, the world in its sights.
Senegal's just energy transition partnership agreement, signed in June 2023, is public. Read all public positions at www.mackysall.net