UN to open new office for sustainable energy in Vienna

Vienna is to become home to a new United Nations (UN) office for sustainable energy, the Austrian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. Michael Spindelegger, Austria's foreign minister, said the office in Vienna was "another important signal toward worldwide affordable and sustainable access to sustainable energy." "Vienna will thereby become the energy-hub of the United Nations and will be further developed as an important UN seat," he added. Spindelegger said sustainable energy was an essential condition for the reduction of global poverty and for the achievement of the eight UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) established in 2000, set to be met by 2015. Vienna already hosts the "Vienna Energy Forum" every two years, and the "Global Forum on Sustainable Energy" (GFSE) was also launched in the city. The new UN office will be headed by current United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Director-General Kandeh Yumkella, who will leave for the new role in mid-2013.