‘The Decade of Sustainable Energy for All’ is the initiative of:

The correct answer is A) United Nations. The UN General Assembly, through resolution 67/215 (2012), declared 2014-2024 as the Decade of Sustainable Energy for All. It grew out of the UN Secretary-General's Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative, launched by Ban Ki-moon in 2011. Its three goals were universal access to modern energy, doubling the rate of energy efficiency improvement, and doubling the share of renewables, all linked to SDG 7.

Why the others are wrong:

• India: India led the International Solar Alliance with France, launched at COP21 in 2015. That is a solar-focused coalition, not this UN decade.
• Germany: Germany is a major renewable energy policy actor (Energiewende), but it did not initiate a UN-declared global decade.
• World Bank: It is a key financing and implementing partner of SE4All, which is why it attracts confusion. It was a partner, not the originator.

Core concept: the UN system sets global development targets (SDGs), and SE4All is the UN's energy-access and clean-energy framework. For Mains GS-III, this links to energy security, climate commitments and the energy-poverty debate. The decade formally ended in 2024, so the follow-up now runs through SDG 7 monitoring.

Trap: Aspirants pick India (ISA) or the World Bank (financier) because they sound closely tied to solar and energy finance. Always check who formally declared the initiative.