" [1]NEPAD has committed itself to support African countries to efficiently and effectively utilise the continent’s vast resources of biomass in a sustainable manner to achieve energy security for the all.
These commitments were made by the head of NEPAD’s Energy Programme Professor Mosad Elmissiry, at a recent meeting on Energy Security in the capital Nairobi of Kenya, early this month.
Key on the agenda of the two-day meeting from December 6 to 7 I Nairobi, Kenya, was to seek solutions to the challenges of implementing the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative in Africa, known as SE4ALL.
SE4All is a global initiative of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon aimed at ensuring universal access to modern energy sources such as electricity, doubling the rate of energy efficiency and increasing the amount of renewable energy for all worldwide.
The initiative is in line with NEPAD’s Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), which aims to build the necessary physical structures to better integrate the Continent.
PIDA will achieve this by developing energy projects, oil refineries as well as oil and gas pipeline projects. Most of the power utilities will be inter-connected through transmission corridors, which will cut across Africa from North to South and from East to West.
“Implementing it will help to deliver a well-connected Africa, facilitate energy flows between African countries and realise the building of an African Economic Community, outlined in the 1991 Abuja Treaty,” said Professor Elmissiry.
The NEPAD Agency, through the leadership of the African Union Commission and with support from the UN’s Development Programme (UNDP) has been tasked to follow up on the SE4All commitments and to bring all key actors in Africa to the table to make the initiative a reality by 2030.
At the meeting in Nairobi, participants highlighted the critical linkages between SE4All and PIDA. PIDA as the continent’s main infrastructure development programme was key to accelerating economic growth and improving the living conditions for people in Africa, experts said. The goals of SE4All could be reached if PIDA was effectively implemented, they said.
The issue of how to harness Africa’s major primary energy source, charcoal, was also tabled during the discussions.
Charcoal along with other biomasses such as wood is believed to be one of Africa’s most important energy supplies. It accounts for over 80 per cent of the primary energy use and its consumption has been growing fast over the last decade due to urbanisation and growing household energy consumptions.
Experts at the meeting developed a roadmap to help harness this valuable energy source so as to meet the Continent’s energy demands for the future on a sustainable basis.
Earlier this month, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon commended NEPAD for its contribution to SE4ALL and its role in the high impact area of bioenergy. He highlighted NEPAD’s key achievements such as the programmes on renewable energy, as well as the Agency’s collaboration with UNDP on the Africa Platform for Development Effectiveness (APDev) which has culminated in the formation of an African response to sustainable energy initiatives.
The outcomes of the meeting will be tabled as inputs for the finalisation of the Framework for Sustainable Charcoal production and use on the Continent, which will be presented for adoption at the AU Summit in January next year. The roadmap will help to implement sustainable charcoal energy projects at national, regional and continental levels.
