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Daily web coverage
(click on the following links to see our daily web pages)
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On Saturday, delegates to IRENA’s High-Level Africa Consultative Forum on Renewable Energy participated in three sessions on:
 Carrying forward Africa’s Priorities for Sustainable Energy in Partnership with IRENA
Preparing the ground for accelerating renewable energy deployment in Africa
Dialogue on opportunities for effective implementation of IRENA’s Work Programme for Africa
In the afternoon, participants adopted a Communiqué on Renewable Energy for Accelerating Africa’s Development.
Adnan Amin, Director-General, IRENA, thanked participants for their endorsement of IRENA and closed the Forum at 5:39pm.
A summary of the Forum will be online on this site on Tuesday, 12 July 2011.
Visit the web coverage for Saturday, 9 July 2011.
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Session Chair Elizabeth Dipuo Peters, Minister of Energy South Africa, said Africa cannot be a charity case forever. Frank Wouters, Masdar, called for an enabling policy framework focused on, among others: encouraging the development of sustainable individual businesses along the entire energy chain and the careful management of subsidies to avoid distorting markets. Christine Eibs Singer, CEO, E+Co, stressed the need for training clean energy entrepreneurs to put together viable, bankable, and investment-attractive business plans. Karsten Sach, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany, said his country’s commitment to renewable energy technologies was driven by the goal of securing energy access and creating value. Jason Schaffler, Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) highlighted knowledge-sharing initiatives to enhance the uptake of renewable energies in Africa. Sekou Touré, Global Environment Facility (GEF), presented on the experiences and relevance of the GEF in financing energy. |
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The session was chaired by Ogunlade Davidson, Minister of Energy and Water Resources, Sierra Leone, who challenged African leaders to move away from a “lack-of” mentality and start to harness the continent’s considerable capacities.
Elizabeth Dipuo Peters, Minister of Energy, South Africa, called for an interface between the energy, trade and environment sectors, to reduce duplication of efforts and increase investment in green growth. Stephen Karekezi, AFREPREN, encouraged the simultaneous development of agroindustry and green energy projects. Serge Lepeltier, Ambassador for Climate Change, France, said the Paris-Nairobi Climate Initiative aims to provide a dynamic stimulus to meet the goal of providing universal access to energy in Africa by 2030. Gauri Singh, Director of Knowledge Management Innovation and Technology, IRENA, said that IRENA’s readiness mapping initiative is designed to support countries explore a set of alternative pathways in their transition to a clean energy future.
Deepak Gupta, Ministry of New and Renewable Energies, India, proposed the setting up of working groups to identify key action areas, and the development and monitoring of timelines to perform the identified actions. Youba Sokona, Coordinator, African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC), underscored the importance of separating "energy needs", a development term, from "energy demand", an economic term.
Carmen Becerril, President of Acciona Energy, Spain, advocated feed-in tariffs and removal of bureaucratic barriers as the two key elements for successful deployment of renewables. Abubakar Umar, Director, Energy Commission of Nigeria, said that African countries need concerted and well-connected policies to attract and sustain local and international investments. Vincent Kitio, Chief, Urban Energy Section, UN HABITAT, called for a strong financial mechanism to bolster the uptake of renewable energy technologies. |
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The IRENA High-Level Africa Consultative Forum on Renewable Energy opened on Friday, 8 July 2011. Participants discussed opportunities and challenges for renewable energy for Africa, strategic partnerships, and best practices and challenges in promoting renewable energy investment.
During the opening ceremony, Adnan Amin, Director-General, IRENA, highlighted that what Africa needs most is enabling policy frameworks on renewable energy that will attract private investment. Sultan Al Jaber (UAE), President of the 1st Session of the Assembly of IRENA, emphasized the interlinkages between energy, global security, climate change mitigation and poverty reduction.
Habib Ouane, Vice-Chair of the Conference of Energy Ministers of Africa (CEMA) and Minister of Energy and Water, Mali, highlighted Africa’s underinvestment in energy infrastructure. He identified renewable energy as key for ensuring Africa’s energy security. Farooq Abudullah, Minister of New and Renewable Energy, India, called on African countries to take advantage of specific programs offered in India geared towards study and training in renewable energy technologies. Rajendra Pachauri highlighted off-grid decentralized energy infrastructure investments as a potential win-win approach for accelerating energy access while contributing to climate change mitigation. Kandeh Yumkella, Chair of UN-Energy, and Director-General, UNIDO, said the key question is how Africa can ride the “green wave” and develop its economies.
Visit the web coverage for Friday, 8 July 2011. |
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During the session on opportunities and challenges in renewable energy for Africa, Dolf Gielen, Director, Innovation and Technology Center, IRENA, stressed that decisions to mainstream renewables must be based on longer-term planning. Habib Ouane, stressed that the transition to a clean energy future for Africa requires enhanced collaboration at the subregional and regional level. Atef Mohamed Ibrahim Marzouk, African Union Commission, highlighted a number of regional renewable energy initiatives. Odala Matupa, Southern African Development Commission (SADC), presented on the institutions and instruments dealing with energy issues in the region. Mahama Kappiah, Director, ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE), said the objective of his organization is to create favorable conditions and enabling environments for renewable energies and energy efficiency markets in the ECOWAS region. Youba Sokona, UN Economic Commission for Africa, said the key question is to determine the relationship between energy access and poverty alleviation and how this translates into the African context. Meseret Teklemariam, UNEP, highlighted a UNEP-GEF partnership, under the green economy initiative, to promote geothermal energy in Eastern Africa. |
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Session Chair Mohamed Maalim Mohamud, Assistant Minister for Energy, Kenya, called for policy dialogues bringing together all stakeholders to help accelerate the use of renewables on the ground. Rajendra Pachauri, IPCC Chair, called on Africa, through South-South cooperation, to come up with a strategic framework for renewable energy.
Li Junfeng, Energy Research Institute, China, highlighted China’s achievements in creating an enabling environment for commercialization of renewable energy technologies. Fred Moavenzaden summarized the role of the Masdar Institute for Science and Technology as human capacity development, research and development, and hands-on involvement to build linkages with relevant knowledge institutions around the world.
Zitouni Ould-Dada, Department of Energy & Climate Change, UK, informed participants that the Capital Markets Climate Initiative seeks to bridge the gap in private finance flows to the renewable energy sector. |
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Session Chair Louis Seck, President Designate of IRENA’s 2nd Assembly, said that lessons also need to be learnt from unsuccessful renewable energy projects. Stephen Karekezi, African Energy Policy Research Network (AFREPREN) spoke on bagasse cogeneration, underscoring the need to replicate successes through different agricultural sectors. Sergio Alcocer, Under-Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Technology, Mexico, noted the importance of government incentives to promote R&D, private sector financing of public works, and net-metering for residential areas.
Kirsty Hamilton, Chatham House, called on governments to engage financiers early on in the policy design phase to help them understand which issues need to be tackled at early stages of renewable energy development. Carlo Van Wageningen, Lake Turkana Wind Power Ltd in Northern Kenya, highlighted challenges faced by private sector investors in the renewables sector.
Christine Eibs Singer, founder, E+CO, said we do not need energy R&D to service the poor today, what is needed is innovation on how the poor can pay. Steve Sawyer, Global Wind Energy Council, noted that traditional boundaries between the transport, heating and cooling, and power generation sectors are being redrawn and, in future, these sectors will need to be treated more holistically. |
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Daily web coverage
(click on the following links to see our daily web pages)
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IRENA resources
Forum website
History of IRENA
2011 IRENA work programme
IISD RS resources
IISD RS coverage of the Sixth Asia Clean Energy Forum 2011, 22-24 June 2011, Manila, Philippines
IISD RS briefing note of the Ministerial Meeting on Energy and Green Industry, 21-22 June 2011, Vienna, Austria (HTML - PDF) and summary report of the Vienna Energy Forum 2011, 21-23 June 2011, Vienna, Austria (HTML - PDF)
IISD RS summary report of the Regional Global Forum on Sustainable Energy (GFSE) - “Energy between Danube and Caucasus” - The Role of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency as a Key Issue for Economic Development, 28-29 April 2011, Vienna, Austria (HTML - PDF)
IISD RS coverage of the Fifth Session of the Preparatory Commission for the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and First session of the Assembly of IRENA, 3-5 April 2011, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
IISD RS coverage of the World Future Energy Summit 2011, 17-20 January 2011, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
IISD RS coverage of the Delhi International Renewable Energy Conference, 27-29 October 2010, New Delhi, India
IISD RS summary report of the First High-Level Meeting of the Africa-EU Energy Partnership, 14-15 September 2010, Vienna, Austria (HTML - PDF)
IISD RS Summary Report of the Global Renewable Energy Forum - “Scaling up Renewable Energy,” 7-9 October 2009, León, Mexico (English: HTML - PDF) (Spanish: HTML - PDF)
IISD RS Summary Report of the Vienna Energy Conference 2009, 22-24 June 2009, Vienna, Austria (HTML - PDF)
IISD RS coverage of the Global Renewable Energy Forum, 18-21 May 2008, Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil
IISD RS Summary Report of GFSE-7 - “Energy Efficiency for Developing Countries,” 21-23 November 2007, Vienna, Austria (HTML - PDF)
IISD RS Summary Report of GFSE-6 - “Africa is Energizing Itself,” 29 November - 1 December 2006, Vienna, Austria (HTML - PDF)
IISD RS Summary Report of GFSE-5 - “Enhancing International Cooperation on Biomass,” 11-13 May 2005, Vienna, Austria (HTML - PDF - TEXT)
IISD RS Summary Report of GFSE-4 - “Energy for Sustainable Development: Reconsidering the Role of Incentive Measures,” 18-20 February 2004, Vienna, Austria (HTML - PDF - TEXT)
IISD RS Summary Report of GFSE-3 - “Public-Private Partnerships for Rural Energy Development,” 27-29 November 2002, Graz, Austria (HTML - PDF - TEXT)
IISD RS Summary Report of GFSE-2 - “Energy Technologies: Cooperation for Rural Development,” 28-30 November 2001, Laxenburg, Austria (HTML - PDF - TEXT)
IISD RS Summary Report of GFSE-1 - “Rural Energy: Priorities for Action,” 11-13 December 2000, Laxenburg, Austria (HTML - PDF - TEXT)
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High-Level Africa Consultative Forum on Renewable Energy
