United Nations Development Programme

1 August 2005

Dear Mr. Meisen,

Thank you for your letter of 25 July 2005 addressed to Mark Malloch Brown, sharing your recent reports. Your studies pointing to the strong correlation between electricity and human development are interesting and consistent with the findings of previous studies such as the World Energy Assessment. They will be an invaluable reference and contribute to raising awareness for all working on development issues.

One third of the world's population has no access to modern fuels and 1.6 billion are without electricity. It will not be possible to acheive the Millennium Development Goals if we don't make serious progress on increasing access to both modern fuels for cooking and heating as well as electricity. The United Nations system is fully aware of this, and recently established a UN-system wide report, entitled "The Energy Challenge for Acheiving the Millennium Development Goals". The report, developed under the lead of the UNDP and the World Bank with contributions fron UN agencies, reaffirms the important role that energy services play, in promoting socio-economic development, social equality, and environmental sustainability. Its main message is clear: Energy must play a more prominent role in strategies to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is downloadable at the UN Energy website(http://esa.un.org/un-energy/). I hope you will find the report useful in advancing your work on energy and development.

Yours sincerely,

Luis Gomez-Echeverri
Officer-in-Charge
Bureau for Development Policy

Mr. Peter Meisen
President
Global Energy Network Institute

---