Hon. Mr. Barshaman Pun ‘Ananta’, Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, participated today in the High-Level Dialogue on the implementation of the global plan of action of the United Nations Decade of Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) 2014-2024: A Mid-point Review organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) in New York. 

Speaking in the High-Level Dialogue, Hon. Pun highlighted the importance of SE4ALL initiative and reiterated the commitment of the Government to ensuring reliable, affordable and modern energy for all. The Minister also highlighted that Sustainable Development Goal 7 has an important cross-cutting dimension and fulfilling this goal would help achieve other important goals and targets including poverty reduction (Goal 1) and sustainable infrastructure (Goal 9).

The Minister also shared that significant progress has been made in the areas of developing and mainstreaming hydropower as well as renewable energy projects with a view to reducing dependency on imported fossil fuels by replacing them with clean sources of energy. He also highlighted that concerted efforts and enhanced international cooperation and commitments from all sides would play a crucial role in achieving affordable and clean energy. 

Later today, the Hon. Minister held a meeting with Mr. LIU Zhenmin, Under-Secretary-General, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. During the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other aspects of Nepal-UN cooperation, including in energy. 

In the evening today, the Hon. Minister attended a dinner hosted in his honour by Ambassador Amrit Bahadur Rai, Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations, at his official residence. 

At the invitation of UN-DESA, the Hon. Minister, accompanied by Hon. Onsari Gharti Magar, member of parliament and his spouse, arrived in New York on 23 May 2019 to attend the High-level Dialogue.

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The General Assembly declared the Decade of Sustainable Energy for All 2014-2024 by its resolution 67/215 in 2014 to underscore the importance of energy issues for sustainable development. The Mid-point Review Dialogue was organized to discuss the implementation of the Decade in its first five years and to stress the importance of the Decade in achieving SE4ALL.