Lighting up Africa requires coordination in energy initiatives
The Africa Development Bank’s (AfDB) says mushrooming of energy initiatives in Africa is a welcome development because energy is a development but there is need for coordination of these initiatives to ensure their success.
AfDB’s Director of Energy, Environment and Climate Change and Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) Africa Hub, Kurt Lonsway made the remarks on Wednesday during a panel discussion on Coordination of Pan African Energy Initiatives, the tenth day of negotiations at the 21st conference of parties in Paris.
Lonsway said coordination is crucial in these initiatives to avoid running into the risk of duplication and waste.
He noted that a multitude of initiatives with similar objectives increase the risks related to duplication of efforts and uncoordinated implementation especially in view of limited absorption capacities at country level.
“There is a need for a coordination framework that is able to ensure coherence and avoid duplication of effort, and maximize reach and impact across the continent,” he suggested.
Concurring with Lonsway, African Union Commission (AUC) Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, Dr. Elham Ibrahim, said it is important that any new energy initiative on the continent takes a look at existing initiatives that are already on the ground to avoid duplication.
Ibrahim said coordination is important in ensuring that initiatives complement each other.
“Energy initiatives should not compete with each other but rather they should complement each other,” she said.
According to Lonsway, over 600 million Africans lack access to electricity while over 700 million Africans still rely on solid fuels for cooking and heating purposes. This is despite the fact that Africa is endowed with huge energy potential particularly in renewable energy which is largely untapped.
Several energy initiatives have emerged at the COP21, one of them is the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI), a transformative, Africa-owned and Africa-led inclusive effort to accelerate and scale up the harnessing of the continent’s untapped and huge renewable energy potential.
Under the mandate of the African Union (AU), and endorsed by African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC), the Initiative is set to achieve at least 10 GW of new and additional renewable energy generation capacity by 2020, and mobilize the African potential to generate at least 300 GW by 2030.
Mamadou Diakite of New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) said with several energy initiatives in Africa, there is no need to re-invent the wheel. He called for harmonization of the initiatives and for countries to set the rules of engagement.
On the other hand, Peter Craig-McQuaide of European Commission and head of Unit of International Cooperation and Development-Sustainable and Climate Change, said access to energy by all was the EU Commission’s priority. He admitted that all partners are all guilty of lack of coordination.
McQuaide further called for African governments to put their houses in order if they are to benefit from the many energy initiatives coming up in Africa.
For coordination to be achieved, the starting point identified by many stakeholders is a mapping of existing initiatives and programs to serve as a critical input and prerequisite for facilitating coordination.
As a result, the Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP) with funding from the European Commission has initiated such mapping. The African Union Commission has been providing political leadership, with technical input from the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) Africa Hub, based at the African Development Bank (AfDB).
The objective of the mapping is to compile a comprehensive, focused and systematic overview on energy initiatives and programs in Africa so that overlaps, gaps and potential areas for collaboration and synergies can be identified.
