The African Energy Chamber (AEC), in partnership with the United Nations (UN) Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Secretariat of Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), has launched the Team-Energy Africa initiative, to mobilise private sector financing for accelerated clean energy deployment across Africa
During the launch – which served as a prelude to the high-level launch to be held in Kigali, Rwanda from 17-19 May 2022 – parties provided insight into the mission and vision of the initiative, the context in which the initiative was born and the next steps to be taken.
“Africa has abundant energy sources. Looking at renewables alone, we have 20,000MW of geothermal, 350,000MW of hydro, 110,000MW of wind and abundant solar irradiation. Yet about 590 million go without access to electricity,” stated Linus Mofor, senior environmental affairs officer, African Climate Policy Centre, ECA.
The Team-Energy Africa initiative centres on three overarching pillars, namely sustainability, governance and finance. By supporting countries that embrace sustainability and address key governance challenges to unlock private sector clean energy investment, Team-Energy Africa is committed to unlocking critical capital, fostering an enabling environment for investment in Africa, and ushering in a new era of energy access and growth while accelerating Africa’s energy transition.
“We all need to talk about the importance of energy for the continent. In forums, we always hear international players coming to do business on our continent. We should be a part of that conversation and in the room. We can take some important conversations to Cairo. One conversation will be around gas. We need to go to COP27 to talk about this. For us, it is not just a question about energy, but also about industrialization and job creation. We need to look at these from an African perspective and we need a team with the private sector in the room,” stated Vera Songwe, UN under-secretary-general and executive secretary of the ECA.
