On 18 June, the UN General Assembly held an interactive thematic dialogue on ‘Energy efficiency, energy conservation and new and renewable sources of energy’.

The ideaof holding such dialogue was put forward by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Sergei Martynov in his address to the General Assembly in October 2007. This proposal was supported by 17 Member States across the regions: Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, El Salvador, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Namibia, United Arab Emirates, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

Permanent Representative of Belarus to the UN Andrei Dapkiunas voiced the Foreign Minister’s address to the debate participants and presented the Belarusian suggestions on establishing a comprehensive international mechanism of ensuring fair and equal access of all countries to cutting-edge technologies of new and renewable sources of energy.

This mechanism would seek to improve existing legal and institutional conditions for the development, transfer and access to energy technologies. To help deliver this goal, Belarus suggested to adopt a General Assembly resolution that would see recommendations on setting up the technologies data bank, a UN fund and international centre for transferring cutting-edge technologies.

Belarus urged the General Assembly to launch an intergovernmental dialogue on fostering a multi-faceted UN energy agenda, raise co-operation on energy issues between developed and developing countries, enhance energy efficiency.

Belarus also suggested to consider the advisability of proclaiming advanced technologies a universal value.