A Forum for Just and Future-Ready Transitions
From September 29 to October 2, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) will host its annual Sustainable Energy Week (SEW) 2025. This year’s edition, under the theme “Just transition for building resilient energy systems,” will focus on how countries can balance energy security, affordability, and sustainability while ensuring that no one is left behind in the global energy transition.
The event will bring together policymakers, experts, and industry leaders across multiple forums, including the Committee on Sustainable Energy and expert groups on energy efficiency, renewable energy, and cleaner electricity systems.
Redefining Energy Costs with System-Level Analysis
A central theme of SEW 2025 is full system cost analysis. Traditional assessments of electricity costs often focus narrowly on generation expenses, overlooking grid integration, system balancing, resilience measures, and broader social or environmental impacts.
UNECE’s approach captures hidden costs and co-benefits—such as reduced air pollution or improved health—giving decision-makers a more complete picture. This helps governments avoid lock-in to unsustainable energy pathways and design strategies that are equitable, resilient, and future-proof.
Digital Transformation as a Catalyst
The energy sector is undergoing a digital revolution. Through its Task Force on Digitalization in Energy, UNECE is exploring how data-driven systems can integrate distributed resources, markets, and consumers into a cyber-physical network.
Key areas include interoperability with legacy infrastructure and harmonization of digital platforms, ensuring that diverse actors can operate within a unified ecosystem. By promoting open-source approaches where possible, UNECE supports the creation of efficient and reliable digitalized energy systems.
Tackling the Sustainability of Data Centres
As AI and cloud services expand, data centres are placing unprecedented demands on energy, water, and raw materials. UNECE’s latest research emphasizes life cycle sustainability, greater transparency, and circular economy practices that extend equipment lifespans and cut e-waste.
With proper governance, these facilities could evolve from energy-intensive liabilities into resilient assets that enhance flexibility across the grid—part of UNECE’s vision for a “twin transition” where digitalization and sustainability advance in tandem.
Electromobility and Smart Infrastructure
Electromobility will also feature prominently in SEW 2025. UNECE is pioneering research on “location efficiency” for EV charging networks, offering guidance to cities and regions on how to expand infrastructure in ways that minimize costs, reduce grid stress, and maximize accessibility.
This forward-looking work helps ensure that rising electric vehicle adoption strengthens, rather than destabilizes, energy systems.
A Systemic Approach to Global Energy Challenges
By linking system-level cost analysis, digital innovation, sustainable data-centre management, and EV infrastructure planning, SEW 2025 highlights UNECE’s holistic approach to energy transition. The goal is not only technological advancement, but also inclusive governance and fair distribution of benefits across its 56 member States and beyond.
Through expert platforms, best-practice sharing, and capacity-building, UNECE empowers countries to adapt cutting-edge solutions to their own contexts—shaping an energy future that is clean, resilient, and inclusive.
