On April 6, 2021, BRICS Youth Energy Agency with support of NYCR hosted a side event “BRICS Youth Energy Compact: Uniting the Efforts for SDG7” to the 10th anniversary 10th Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum. The event was held as an online conference.

The session moderated by Mr. Vadim Kuznetsov (Manager, SDGP) was held in an interactive way to engage BRICS Youth as well as young people from other developing countries who are willing to be a part of the joint action to address SDG7.

At the side event, young people learned what Energy Compacts have been designed for and what role they are to play in meeting the Agenda 2030, in particular SDG7. This was accurately explained by Mr. Amir Bahr, Senior Energy Specialist from Sustainable Energy for All. “As we need to unite multiple our fragmented approaches to deliver on our common objectives by 2030, we are mobilizing multistakeholder voluntary commitments which are based on five HLDE thematic pillars and underpinned by actions to connect solution providers with the fields where support is crucial. To increase ambition on the commitments, there will also be an accountability framework walking the SDG7 implementation up until 2030”, – he said.

Designed by BRICS Youth Energy Agency and endorsed by co-leads of the global action, namely UN-Energy and SEforAll, the elaboration process of the BRICS Youth Energy Compact found its inception as it was introduced by Mr. Alexander Kormishin, BRICS YEA Chairperson. Mr. Kormishin highlighted the potential of BRICS countries in the future of energy and their role in meeting SDG7 by 2030 and the Climate Goals by 2050. “The youth, however, – he said, – has to be put at the front line as they are the ones who will implement the commitments undertaken this year by Member States. The broad youth coalition is essential in defining the joint actions because it is the only way to secure legitimate and doable decisions.”

In the meantime, the participants of the side event were invited to give their inputs via an open survey by choosing their preferences within the agendas of the five Technical Working Groups to the HLDE.

The BRICS Youth Energy Compact was highly endorsed by the invited members of the panel. Ms. Olga Yudina, Advisor to Director General of the Russian Energy Agency, emphasized that, streamlining the vast experience in youth energy cooperation, the BRICS Youth Energy Compact will serve as a solid basis for developing multilateral consultations amongst the BRICS states at various international fora, including those of the UN. In addition, Ms. Yudina expressed her hope to see the BRICS Youth Energy Compact presented at the High-Level Dialogue on Energy and ensured that all the necessary support on the part of Russia will be channeled to make the initiative a success.

On the other hand, Mr. Subrahmanyam Pulipaka, CEO of the National Solar Energy Federation of India, commended the efforts of BRICS youth to target SDG7 because this facilitates the actions taken by the five countries. He also highlighted that ‘many of us forget that the most powerful energy on the plant is the energy of youth and one shouldn’t forget about this resource.’ His thoughts have been supported by Mr. Pratik Suthar, National Convenor of Think India, who underscored the significance of involving more young people into bringing forward new energy technologies to secure a beneficial energy transition for all the BRICS countries.

Ms. Milena Megre, International Manager of EnergyC (Brazil), marked that youth should be provided with broader opportunities to get a space for engaging in the decision making process and communicating their energy-tailored vision to policy makers.

Ms. Nora Li from SEforAll in her short remark following the discussion noticed that Energy Compacts have a multi-lateral nature and are open for collaborations, and SEforAll team is there to facilitate.

In his closing, Mr. Kormishin outlined the next steps for development of the Compact which also includes the finalization of the Working Group list in charge. He also summarized that the diversity which is a treasure of intra-BRICS relations does not interfere with the spheres where the youth sees the future of energy similarly. In this regard, he suggested to issue a long-needed document which would reflect the common vision of BRICS youth for the future of energy, namely the BRICS Youth Energy Vision. The draft document and the open discussions will be announced shortly.

The other news announced by Mr. Kormishin was the publication of the Special report “Black Swans in BRICS Energy Sectors” which is scheduled for April 8, 2021 and will be available online on BRICS YEA website.

The draft BRICS Youth Energy Compact is planned for discussions at the Thematic Ministerial Forum with youth engagement in summer and the following presentation at the HLDE in September 2021. The compact will be the first-of-its-kind youth mechanism for preparations to the High-Level Dialogue on Energy open to voluntary youth commitments that ensures youth participation in the Decade of Action for Sustainable Energy.

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