By Robert Muthami and Isaiah Esipisu
African Civil Society Organisations, on the
sidelines of the ongoing 27th African Union and Governments Summit
in Kigali-Rwanda have launched an energy advocacy initiative dubbed the “The
Big Shift” aimed at enhancing energy access among millions of African Energy
poor.
The Initiative is in line with the African Coalition
for Sustainable Energy and Access (ACSEA) launched during of the African
Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), and spearheaded by the Pan
African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA).
“African States continue to rely heavily on fossil fuels that are becoming
more and more expensive for governments and households as prices are
skyrocketing,” said Benson Ireri, the Senior Policy Advisor at the Christian
Aid.
He noted that 70 percent of the African population still does not have
access to modern clean energy services that are efficient, reliable.
According to
Mithika Mwenda, the Secretary General for PACJA, there are two global crises in
the energy sector which often seem to have contradictory solutions. “The
urgency of tackling climate change through a rapid global shift to low-carbon energy
is one of the issues, and the secondly is the fact that more than two billion
people continue to live in poverty because they have little or no access to
clean and reliable energy,” he said.
And now, through
a shift of investment away from centralized fossil fuel based energy towards
diverse renewable energy sources, the CSOs believe that it is possible to
deliver clean energy to developing countries, helping them overcome energy
poverty in a way that will not lead to further devastating levels of global
warming.
However, the CSO
representatives said that, the shift will require a great political goodwill
and a massive shift in energy investment strategies across the globe.
Over the next
three years, the Big Shift campaign targets to build an international advocacy
movement, supported by clear national and regional evidence from Africa, Asia,
Latin America and the Caribbean. This is to ensure that the tens of trillions
of dollars available for energy infrastructure projects are directed towards
low-carbon renewable energy. This will allow the world’s poorest countries to
pursue development agendas which will not have dangerous implications for the
climate.
So far, the
Africa Development Bank (AfDB) has launched an initiative known as Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI), which aims to
produce 300 gigawatts (GW) of electricity for the continent by 2030.
The bank also
has another initiative known as ‘The New Deal on
Energy for Africa,’ which
charts the way for a transformative partnership on energy focuses on mobilizing
support and funding for the initiative from five key areas.
This is among many other many energy deals targeting Africa, such as the
Obama Power Africa Initiative, and the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4A).
The ‘Big Shift’ will therefore track the implementation of investment
under these energy initiatives.
“We need other civil society organisations to join the Big Shift
initiative and demand for investment in the energy sector to be moved from
fossil fuel to renewable or low carbon energy,” said Mithika Mwenda.
The initiative was launched with support from PACJA, Christian Aid and Action
for Environment and Sustainable Development Network (AESDN).
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