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Creating stability in the economies and the political environment in Africa
How do you deploy technology in a way that it enables critical sectors to support Africa’s ability to end energy poverty, which is actually at the heart of a lot of the other poverties, to create stability in the economies and the political environment?
Ahunna Eziakonwa, Assistant Secretary-General and Director of UNDP, Africa Bureau
The connection between access to affordable electricity and poverty is clear. According to weforum.org, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called energy the “golden thread connecting economic growth, social equity and environmental sustainability”. Recognising the critical role access to energy plays in productive activity and how access to ‘clean’ energy is key to positive health for the population and climate outcomes.
At the 79th UN General Assembly in New York, a study on and led by Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) revealed that, with just five years to 2030, UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 SDG7– affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy access for all– is clearly not on track.
Lower income countries are most at risk of being left behind, with more than 750 million people with no access to electricity, and global renewable energy adoption remaining low. Anticipated population growth and resource constraints may mean leaving a large number of people, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa, without electricity beyond 2030.
Infrastructure is needed to create opportunities for the young people living in African countries today and in the future. In order to achieve universal access, added energy must be generated and distributed to a population the size of the UK and Germany combined, for the coming eight years.
Inequalities of existing energy systems can be mitigated and potentially balanced with increased access to technology, capacity and financing, to provide new green jobs, develop domestic industries and create new renewable energy markets for investors. To this end, Institutions like the World Bank and the African Development Bank have taken the initiative with Mission 300 aiming to electrify 300 million Africans by 2030.
Ahunna Eziakonwa was interviewed at Nordic African Business Summit in Oslo, Norway
