Africa to get renewable energy boost

PARIS — France and nine other partners on Tuesday pledged to mobilise $10 billion cumulatively from 2015 to 2020 to boost access to energy in Africa.

The nine other partners, namely Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US, Sweden, Netherlands and the European Union (EU) will jointly provide the money which will assist developing countries adapt to global warming and build renewable energy sources.

Germany is contributing $3,3 billion while France, the US, Britain, Canada, Japan, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands and the EU Commission would contribute the remaining $6,7 billion.

This emerged during the climate talks at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP) to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris.

The Africa Renewable Energy Initiative aims to achieve at least 10 GW of new and additional renewable energy generation capacity by 2020 which would be sufficient to generate at least 300 GW by 2030.

The partners said they supported Africa’s leadership and would work closely with African partners to bridge the access gap and develop renewable energy potential on the continent.

“In this context we welcome the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative as a transformative, Africa-owned and led inclusive effort to accelerate and scale-up the harnessing of the continent’s renewable energy potential.

“We welcome the contributions from countries interested in helping Africa harness its renewable energy potential and improve access to sustainable energy for all.

“We welcome the significant financial commitments that have already been made by a number of countries to accelerate efforts to harness Africa’s renewable energy potential and expand energy access across the continent, and we commit to mobilising at least $10 billion cumulatively from 2015 to 2020,” said the partners.

Meanwhile, developed countries jointly committed to a goal of mobilising jointly $100 billion a year by 2020 from a wide variety sources.

Access to energy in developing countries is essential for the reduction of poverty and promotion of economic growth. – New Ziana.