I happened to hear some of the comments by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki‐​moon in Washington today. The comments regarded the Secretary General’s “Sustainable Energy for All” initiative.


It was a classic of bureaucratic speechmaking, as it was chock‐​full of the catch‐​phrases that are popular in internationalist circles. As a student of bureaucracy, I had a chuckle.


Here are a few roughly transcribed highlights. (These appear between 2:17 and 2:23 on the C-SPAN tape).

I have a high‐​level group of eminent experts and visionary thinkers…


Our challenge is to join forces and overcome the barriers to bring our efforts to scale. We will need to scale‐​up successful examples of clean energy and energy efficient technologies… We must make a quantum leap…


My Sustainable Energy for All initiative will bring together key stakeholders in an effort to create transformative change in the world’s energy systems. By leveraging the global convening power of the United Nations, it will introduce new public‐​private partnerships by fostering the necessary enabling conditions, including to mitigate risk and to promote large‐​scale investment. And by engaging a broad range of stakeholders, the initiative will mobilize innovative solutions and bold commitments…


Next week in London, the clean energy ministerial meeting will receive our action agenda on 11 areas—very concrete areas for how we can end this poverty. We must rally behind these priorities. I am very excited we are joining hands with the clean energy ministerial to promote game‐​changing initiatives such as the global lighting and energy access partnerships


…renewed political commitment to sustainable energy…


…concrete deliverables…


…produce a powerful outcome document…