Reference material documentary: "Bring the sun home"

On 18 November the United Nations Regional Informational Center, Enel and UNEP are screening the documentary: "Bring the sun home"

The documentary is about illiterate women from villages around the world with no electricity who attend a course to learn how to make solar panels in India. They don't speak English but they are determined to learn the technology. Those who have completed the course have returned to their villages and brought the sun home to more than 300,000 people.

The film was directed by Chiara Andrich and Giovanni Pellegrini.

The film will be followed by a Q&A with guest speakers:

• Thierry Lucas, Coordinator of the Biodiversity and the Ecosystems Management Subprogramme, United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)

• Maria Cristina Papetti, Head of Sustainable Projects, Enel Group

• Lucia Gotti Venturato, Producer of the film

List of relevant (non exhaustive) reference material:

- The Year of Light
In proclaiming an International Year focusing on the topic of light science and its applications, the UN has recognized the importance of raising global awareness about how light-based technologies promote sustainable development and provide solutions to global challenges in energy, education, agriculture and health. Light plays a vital role in our daily lives and is an imperative cross-cutting discipline of science in the 21st century. It has revolutionized medicine, opened up international communication via the Internet, and continues to be central to linking cultural, economic and political aspects of the global society. Link for more information: http://www.light2015.org/Home/About.html

- UNEP and Indigenous Peoples: A Partnership in Caring for the Environment Policy Guidance
The objective of this Policy Guidance to UNEP is to better understand and build on the Indigenous Peoples’ rights, knowledge, practices and systems that provide the framework for the harmonious relations that most Indigenous Peoples have with their environment. Furthermore, this Policy Guidance aims to ensure that United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) appropriately considers Indigenous Peoples in its activities, with the understanding that UNEP does not speak in the name of or represent Indigenous Peoples. Link for more information:  http://bit.ly/1ChfN2I

- The en.lighten initiative  
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)-Global Environment Facility (GEF) en.lighten initiative was established in 2009 to accelerate a global market transformation to environmentally sustainable, energy efficient lighting technologies, as well as to develop strategies to phase-out inefficient incandescent lamps to reduce CO2 emissions and the release of mercury from fossil fuel combustion. Link for more information: http://bit.ly/1X4IAgt

-  Enabling Electricity.
Enabling Electricity is the Enel program to fight energy poverty by providing isolated communities and disadvantaged people with sustainable access to electricity developing new business models. Link for more information:  http://bit.ly/1l2FeOU

- UN links private, public partnerships to jointly create climate change solutions
As diplomats and environment experts continue to work towards a global climate agreement in Poland, a United Nations-business forum is trying for the first time to unite the public sector with private ventures to allow businesses and investors to set concrete actions and share solutions. Link for more information: http://bit.ly/1Mk2CAA