© 2012 Economic Commission for Africa
Energy and Climate Change experts discuss Sustainable Energy for all in Africa
Addis Ababa, 11 July 2012 (ECA) - About 40 energy and climate change experts from across Africa met at the United Nations Conference Center in Addis Ababa, from 9-11 July, 2012 to address increasing energy access challenges on the continent. Held under the theme, Sustainable Energy for All in Africa’ (SEFA-Africa), the meeting was aimed at discussing the energy access challenges and opportunities on the continent with a view to accelerating access to energy services as a priority for socioeconomic development.
The gathering explored the roles of policy and institutions, energy planning and service expansion, technologies, Research and Development, as well as financing universal energy access for all in Africa.
“Policies and institutions need to be conducive to rapid expansion of access, complemented with proper energy planning, technology integration, capacity enhancement in research and development and appropriate financing mechanism” said Yohannes Hailu, Economic Affairs Officer with the ECA Subregional Office for Eastern Africa who participated in the meeting.
Mr. Hailu also discussed the linkages between energy security and expanding energy access by pointing out the global, regional and intra-country energy security challenges and their implications to African States.
Twelve countries were selected on the basis of high-performance and high-need countries to explore the factors that contribute to limiting or accelerating energy access. Rwanda is one of the twelve case study countries selected. The findings from these case studies will be feed into the work of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Group of Sustainable Energy for All.
“There is need for energy access initiatives to pay attention to the energy security implications to develop energy access pathways that are resilient to energy security challenges” said Hailu.
The theme of ‘Sustainable Energy for All’ was motivated by the UN initiative on universal access to energy services. The UN General Assembly has declared the year 2012 as the “International Year of Sustainable Energy for All” with the aim of promoting universal access to energy for all by 2030. The UN Secretary-General launched the initiative this year in Abu Dhabi at the World Future Energy Summit and further introduced it at the Rio+20 Conference in June 2012.
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Tel: 251 11 5445098 Fax: +251 11 5510365 E-mail: ecainfo@uneca.org Web: www.uneca.org Related Articles
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