Preparing the Ground for Accelarating Renewable Energy Deployment in Africa and effective implementation of IRENA’s Work Programme for Africa

On Saturday, delegates to IRENA’s High-Level Africa Consultative Forum on Renewable Energy participated in three sessions on:

1. Carrying forward Africa’s Priorities for Sustainable Energy in Partnership with IRENA

2. Preparing the ground for accelerating renewable energy deployment in Africa

3. Dialogue on opportunities for effective implementation of IRENA’s Work Programme for Africa

 

The session was chaired by Ogunlade Davidson, Minister of Energy and Water Resources, Sierra Leone, who challenged African leaders to move away from a “lack-of” mentality and start to harness the continent’s considerable capacities.

Elizabeth Dipuo Peters, Minister of Energy, South Africa, called for an interface between the energy, trade and environment sectors, to reduce duplication of efforts and increase investment in green growth. Stephen Karekezi, AFREPREN, encouraged the simultaneous development of agroindustry and green energy projects. Serge Lepeltier, Ambassador for Climate Change, France, said the Paris-Nairobi Climate Initiative aims to provide a dynamic stimulus to meet the goal of providing universal access to energy in Africa by 2030. Gauri Singh, Director of Knowledge Management Innovation and Technology, IRENA, said that IRENA’s readiness mapping initiative is designed to support countries explore a set of alternative pathways in their transition to a clean energy future.

Deepak Gupta, Ministry of New and Renewable Energies, India, proposed the setting up of working groups to identify key action areas, and the development and monitoring of timelines to perform the identified actions. Youba Sokona, Coordinator, African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC), underscored the importance of separating "energy needs", a development term, from "energy demand", an economic term.

Carmen Becerril, President of Acciona Energy, Spain, advocated feed-in tariffs and removal of bureaucratic barriers as the two key elements for successful deployment of renewables. Abubakar Umar, Director, Energy Commission of Nigeria, said that African countries need concerted and well-connected policies to attract and sustain local and international investments. Vincent Kitio, Chief, Urban Energy Section, UN HABITAT, called for a strong financial mechanism to bolster the uptake of renewable energy technologies.