EU Pledges €7 Billion Toward Renewable Energy in Africa
(Bloomberg) -- The European Union pledged €7 billion ($8.1 billion) toward boosting renewable-energy generation and increasing electricity access in Africa.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the announcement at an event organized by Global Citizen, a poverty eradication advocacy organization, in Johannesburg on Friday, the day before a meeting of leader of the Group of 20 nations in the city. The pledge is toward the EU’s Scaling Up Renewables in Africa campaign.
“We are turbo-charging Africa’s clean-energy transition,” she said. “Millions more people could gain access to electricity.”
It comes as efforts to bring power to the almost 600 million people in Africa without access to electricity, more than 80% of the world total, ramp up. Separately, the World Bank and African Development Bank are running the Mission 300 program, which envisages spending tens of billions of dollars by 2030 on bringing electrification to communities totaling 300 million people.
Von der Leyen and World Bank President Ajay Banga have agreed to “align” the two programs.
The amount adds to earlier pledges, bringing the amount committed toward the campaign to €15.5 billion, with all but about €400 million of that coming from the EU.
The EU has committed the money through its financial institutions as well contributions from members states, led by Italy with €2.4 billion and Germany with €2 billion.
“The European Union wants to be Africa’s partner of choice,” von der Leyen said at an earlier press conference.
(Updates with von der Leyen comment in last paragraph)
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