Environment     

Africa should speak with one voice on energy and climate change

Xinhua, September 17, 2011

• Talking "with one voice" will enable Africa to access funding, develop renewable resources and "benefit from Climate Change funds", Africa Union (AU) Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, Elham Ibrahim said on Friday, calling the continent to heave its "capacity and priorities" on energy and climate change programmes.

  Ibrahim made those remarks when presenting a position paper titled, "Challenges of Achieving Universal Access: Energy Access and Infrastructure Challenges for Africa" at the Africa Energy Ministers conference ending here on Friday.

  "We must talk with one voice to the world for supporting sustainable development and management of renewable resources in Africa and enable the African countries and regions to use and benefit from climate change funds," she added.

  "Africa has large potential for improving energy efficiency," she told Africa energy ministers and senior government officials. "We have to scale up our capacity and be ready with our priorities and mechanisms."

  With the theme "Road to Durban: Promoting Sustainable Energy Access for Africa", the two-day pre-COP17 Africa Energy Ministers conference was hosted by the South African government and endorsed by the AU. The conference focused on providing inputs into the forthcoming 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 17) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

  The conference offered regional energy ministers an opportunity to articulate the challenges of climate change in the energy context and as a collective come up with recommendations on how the continent should handle the complex challenges of improving access to energy while confronting climate change.

  Africa is energy resource rich but power poor. According to Africa Union Commission document, at current trends less than 40 percent of African countries will reach universal access to electricity by 2050.

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