5 Takeaways on the Global Energy Transition from New York!

Heads of state and government, representatives of international organizations, businesses, and investors gathered in New York for the UN Private Sector Forum 2026—a closed-door forum organized by the UN Global Compact on behalf of UN Secretary-General António Guterres. This year’s event was dedicated to the global energy transition: how the world can accelerate the shift toward cleaner energy while ensuring energy security, affordability, and the necessary infrastructure.

Olha Savchenko, Senior Partner at Altelaw&Sempra, participated in the forum and working groups, representing Ukrainian expertise and experience in the energy sector.

Key Keynote Points:

The technological choice has already been made. Since 2010, the cost of solar energy has dropped by nearly 90%, onshore wind by more than 70%, and battery storage by 95%. Over 90% of new renewable generation facilities now produce electricity more cheaply than the cheapest new fossil fuel alternatives. Just a few years ago, renewables were primarily seen through the lens of a climate agenda; today, market economics increasingly drive this transition on their own.

The weakest link is not generation, but grids and regulation. You can build a vast amount of new generation, but without sufficient grid capacity, energy storage, and modern infrastructure, there is simply nowhere to transmit that electricity. Grid connection and balancing challenges are not unique to Ukraine—they represent one of the primary global bottlenecks in the energy transition. Furthermore, regulatory frameworks are failing to keep pace with technology.

Shared challenges. Traditional energy continues to compete with renewables for investment, political focus, and a place in the future energy market, while the question of China arises virtually everywhere.

Different countries, different starting points. The discussion on Africa highlighted a completely different scale of the problem: for part of the world, the issue is whether people will have stable access to electricity at all.

AI as a new factor in energy policy. Data centers powering artificial intelligence require vast amounts of electricity, and demand will only continue to rise. Guterres called on AI companies to disclose the full environmental “cost” of their data centers and to meet this growing demand using renewable energy sources.

Guterres’ concluding statement perfectly captured the essence of the discussion: there is no embargo on the sun, and no blockade on the wind.

Ukraine is already an integral part of this global process. In practice, we have seen how vulnerable a centralized energy system can be, and how crucial distributed generation, energy storage, and the physical resilience of networks truly are. This experience, forged under extraordinary conditions, can become our competitive advantage if we leverage it when shaping a new energy model.