Mercy Corps Signs Up to the Netherlands Energy Compact

27 September 2021

Mercy Corps partners with leading Dutch organisations committed to improving access to affordable, reliable clean energy

Today, 860 million people worldwide lack access to reliable electricity and 2.6 billion live without access to ‘clean’ cooking facilities. Mercy Corps believes that energy is a universal right, affecting how people light and power their homes, cook nutritious meals, and operate hospitals and businesses. But safe and reliable access to energy is far from universal. Differences in gender, age, geography, ability, and social groups impact people’s ability to access and use energy, and their safety in doing so. And the impact of these differences are amplified in times of crisis.

Mercy Corps is committed to working with stakeholders across all sectors and partnering with communities to improve their access to and use of sustainable, affordable and reliable energy services, thus increasing the resilience of communities and ecosystems to climate change and other stressors, whilst also managing or minimising the impact of their activities on climate change.

With the Netherlands Energy Compact, launched on 15 September, Mercy Corps, together with over 20 other organisations, representing the Dutch government, private sector, civil society, finance, knowledge institutions and youth, committed to support global action for inclusive access to affordable, reliable clean energy. The Compact will be presented at the UN High-Level Dialogue on Energy convened by the UN General Assembly, held on 24 September.

The goal of the compact is to accelerate action for the transition to cleaner and renewable energy in low and middle-income countries and improve livelihoods at the same time and support those countries to reach the SDG7 goal (affordable and clean energy) by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050.

By harnessing the power of collaboration across different sectors, the Netherlands strives to accelerate action on the following themes:

  1. Universal access to clean cooking
  2. Universal access to electricity
  3. Funding for clean energy through investment and finance
  4. Access to clean energy for people living in displacement and fragile contexts
  5. Empowering women and youth.

Mercy Corps has joined forces with CARE and Oxfam Novib to contribute to the following commitments:

  • Jointly mobilise funding to ensure access to clean energy for displaced people and people otherwise affected by natural and man-made disasters;
  • Collaborate across humanitarian and development organisations, involving private and public partners, for joint analysis and action on access to clean energy for displaced people and people otherwise affected by natural and man-made disasters, with a particular focus on local ownership and gender equality;
  • Develop and showcase innovative, scalable, socially just and financially sustainable solutions for access to clean energy in humanitarian settings;
  • Engage with donors, private sector, financial sector and development actors for development of investment and funding models for access to clean energy in humanitarian and development contexts;
  • Sign-on to the IFRC Climate and Environmental Charter for Humanitarian Organizations to maximise the environmental sustainability of our work and rapidly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

For the full text of the compact and a list of organisations that have joined, please visit the NL Platform website.