What is celebrated on World Energy Day on February 14?

Around the world, barely a day passes that isn’t a “World Something Day”, with the purpose of celebrating a cause or creating awareness for it. Today, February 14, is “World Energy Day”. But there are many other days related to energy, so we want to shed some light on the topic to avoid confusion.

World Energy Day

Researching World Energy Day online it is hard to come by a lot of reliable information. What caught our attention is that it is primarily promoted by power companies (like Iberdrola in Spain) or fossil fuel exporters (like the UAE, host of COP28 in Dubai in 2023). Reading their descriptions of World Energy Day, it seems the intention is to promote energy as a vital component of our everyday lives and a key ingredient in the global economy and human advancement. While this is laudable, energy is also a critical subject all over Europe, and most of the time for the wrong reasons. Our societies’ energy needs keep growing in general, and electrification of transportation and heating further increase them. This increases the importance of understanding how energy is generated, and what impact this increased consumption has on our environment. In most European countries energy is still produced mostly with fossil fuels, which have a detrimental effect on our environment. And while renewable energy keeps growing as a percentage of our energy mix, we are still far away from achieving a fully sustainable, net zero energy mix in the near future. Reading how World Energy Day is put in association with the importance of energy in general, and it being an “affordable” resource for all, the fact that major polluters like power companies and fossil fuel exporting nations seem to be behind this date makes us suspect this might be the wrong date to celebrate. The obvious greenwashing attempts by these actors doesn’t help.

Other world days related to energy

This is probably why there are a series of other “world days” related to energy that seem to catch a much more adequate angle.

The UN has declared January 26 “World Clean Energy Day” since this year, probably to shift awareness from the importance of energy in general to the much greater importance of generating that energy in a sustainable way that doesn’t destroy our planet.

March 5 has been declared “World Energy Efficiency Day”, with the aim to create awareness for the need to use a scarce resource in a more mindful way, avoiding waste. This is particularly important in buildings and household electronics.

March 8 is “World Solar Appreciation Day”, and as the name suggests it is all about creating awareness for solar energy.

May 16 is “World Light Day”, aiming to highlight the importance of electrical light in our lives.

October 21 is “World Energy Saving Day”, which seems to have a similar goal to World Energy Efficiency Day described above.

Conclusions