Carbon Neutral - Organizations offset their emissions by purchasing carbon offsets intended to reduce or prevent future global emissions.

100% Renewable Energy - Organizations purchase enough renewable energy to match their annual electricity use.

24/7 Carbon-Free Energy - Rather than emitting and compensating, organizations don’t emit in the first place. Every kilowatt-hour of electricity consumption is met with carbon-free electricity sources in every hour, on every grid where electricity is consumed. It means carbon-free energy for all.

Carbon-free energy refers to all energy that is sourced from zero-carbon electricity sources such as wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal, hydro, and other carbon-free energy sources.

24/7 Carbon-Free energy is based on the following principles:

• Time-matched procurement: 24/7 CFE focuses on matching each hour of electricity consumption with carbon-free electricity generation. Hourly matching helps connect clean energy purchasing to underlying electricity consumption.
• Local procurement: 24/7 CFE means purchasing clean energy on the local/regional electricity grids where electricity consumption occurs. This is the only way to drive the electricity-related emissions that a consumer is directly responsible for to zero.
• Technology-inclusive: 24/7 CFE recognizes the need to create zero-carbon electricity systems as quickly as possible, and that all carbon-free energy technologies can play a role in creating this future.
• Enable New Generation: 24/7 CFE focuses on enabling new clean electricity generation in order to support the rapid decarbonization of electricity systems.
• Maximize System Impact: 24/7 CFE focuses attention on maximizing emissions reductions and solving for the dirtiest hours of electricity consumption.

Some of the carbon-free resources that can be used to eliminate emissions today are renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, and sustainable hydroelectric or biomass energy, as well as non-renewable carbon-free resources such as nuclear power. The clean energy community is also working to advance other carbon-free technologies including energy storage systems, green hydrogen, advanced nuclear power, and carbon capture and sequestration, which can all help in the fight against climate change.

Carbon-free is an approach that avoids emitting carbon in the first place, rather than emitting and compensating by carbon offsetting (for example by planting trees), as is often the case in net-zero strategies.

We are a global group of companies, policymakers, investors, and organizations on a mission to realize a 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy future for all. We are working together to develop and scale energy policies, technologies, procurement practices, and solutions to transform the broader energy system and enable rapid and cost-effective decarbonization — every hour, every day, everywhere. The movement is coordinated by Sustainable Energy for All, the United Nations, and a growing list of signatories from companies, organizations, and governments around the world.

The 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy compact was launched during the High-Level Dialogue on Energy in September 2021 with an initial list of founding signatories committed to working toward a carbon-free future for all.

Energy Compacts are voluntary commitments from Member States and all other stakeholders, such as companies, regional/local governments, NGOs, and others, with the specific actions they will take to advance progress on SDG7 and net-zero emissions, designed to be fully in line with SDG Acceleration Actions and Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Climate Agreement. UN-Energy will support the development, mobilization, and monitoring of Energy Compacts throughout the entire cycle.

The 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Compact is an ambitious global effort to accelerate the decarbonization of the world’s electricity systems to mitigate climate change and ensure access to clean and affordable electricity for all, in line with SDG7. In response to the urgent need to drive rapid decarbonization across the global economy, a group of energy buyers, energy suppliers, governments, system operators, solutions providers, investors, and other organizations has joined together to accelerate the decarbonization of electricity grids by adopting, enabling, and advancing 24/7 Carbon-free Energy (CFE). 24/7 Carbon-free Energy means that every kilowatt-hour of electricity consumption is met with carbon-free electricity sources, every hour of every day, everywhere. It is both the end-state of a fully decarbonized electricity system and a transformative approach to energy procurement, supply, and policy design that is critical to accelerating its arrival.

UN-Energy organized a series of workshops for all stakeholders, including governments, business, energy suppliers, solution providers and organizations to provide an overview of the growing movement for 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy (CFE) and how 24/7 CFE can accelerate electricity grid decarbonization and its relevance to net-zero goals. The workshops provided information for interested stakeholders across the energy ecosystem to join this movement and commit to the 24/7 CFE Compact. You can watch the recording of the workshop for governments and the one for business on this link. The presentations are also available on the same link. Watch the workshop recording.

You can read the full 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Compact on the UN website.