Energy Aid Launch
5:15 p.m. (GMT) / 12:15 p.m. (EST) 1st December 2011
The IBM Forum, 76 Upper Ground, Southbank, London, SE1 9PZ
What is Energy Aid?
The idea of Energy Aid emerged from the IBM Summit at Start in September of last year. Governments and NGOs around the world have recognised that energy is a fundamental pre-requisite for improving health, education and economic development outcomes, and that access to energy is a route out of poverty; and yet the UN estimates that 1.3 billion people have no access to electricity and a further 1 billion have limited or unreliable access.
At the Summit the delegates attending the Energy Day felt that this was something that could and should be addressed through collaboration across Government, NGO & Commercial organisations, and a proposal was made to establish a new entity which would seek to address this issue. Over the past year, IBM, Practical Action, the London School of Economics, and research consultancy The Bathwick Group have been working to bring into being a new charity - Energy Aid. Energy Aid’s mission will be to achieve sustainable & universal energy access – energy for heating, lighting, cooking, communications, and mechanical work – for those that have limited or no access today.
Energy Aid will focus on three key areas of activity; an awareness campaign to gain public support for action, creating a worldwide knowledge base of field data, energy technology best practices and resources, and establishing an investment fund to provide long-term first-risk seed funding to create the conditions for new energy services markets to emerge.
Energy Aid is a registered charity, independent of any commercial body, with IBM and other commercial organisations as founding partners, a board of trustees drawn from business and NGOs, and advisory boards comprising a range of industry, academic, political, and corporate leaders.
Please confirm your place by RSVP to sullivaw@uk.ibm.com asap!