The need to provide energy equality so that all can prosper
Delivering accessible and affordable energy supplies to everyone is a necessity but a mission complicated by multiple challenges. And while the world has made great progress, there’s still a long way to go with many millions still lagging behind. These were among the messages and challenges considered by an opening day Ministerial Panel, “Closing the energy divide: powering social progress, inclusive growth and universal energy access.”
The Collaboration Stage was told that many of us take access to energy for granted, particularly access to electricity, as a key to modern life. Yet a significant proportion of the world’s population still doesn’t benefit from many forms of energy at all.
His Excellency Jassim Al Shirawi, Secretary General, International Energy Forum (IEF) laid open the size of the problem citing how 700 million people lack access to modern energy systems and across the world.“There’s major human and economic elements associated with the energy divide,” he said. “It’s not just about who has electricity and who doesn’t, it’s about reliability, about affordability and it’s about opportunity and who has the ability to turn it into opportunity for progress and better life. When the energy is missing…everything becomes much harder. Many sectors suffer - health, systems, education, jobs, productivity, small businesses and households.”
H.E. Al Shirawi also revealed that more than two billion people are still using traditional biomass, wood and charcoal for cooking in their homes, with negative implications on health, particularly for women and children. But he also outlined the challenge of collecting the relevant and essential data needed to provide effective solutions “and enable investors to know there are opportunities”.
Honourable July Moyo, Minister of Energy and Power Development, Republic of Zimbabwe, revealed how his country was trying to help in a place “where the poor are actually poor”. He said the nation was now attracting investments in the area of power generation, but added “we now need to look at the balance between security, affordability and the environment”.
“Our renewable energy, particularly hydro, has been doing very well, but because of climate change, droughts, we have been impacted,” he said. “So we now are diversifying into an expansion into solar, into wind, into what we call waste to energy - we think that will also become very hopeful.”
He said Zimbabwe had also sent people to learn about what was happening in its neighbour, Namibia, which he cited as “more advanced”. He continued: “All these sources of energy we are looking at, the balance between security of supply, the balance with the affordability and the balance with the environment, is something that we put our eye on.”
One huge aspiration for Zimbabwe, he said, is connecting all schools with electricity so that children can realise their digital aspirations while growing up.
Hon. Moyo was part of a panel of ministers and leaders said to be “deeply involved” in trying to improve access to energy in their countries and around the world. This included His Excellency Arzybek Kozhoshev, Minister in Charge of Energy and Infrastructure, Eurasian Economic Union, and Dr. Michel Heijdra, Vice Minister of Climate Policy and Green Growth, Netherlands, who explained how even Europe had learned energy access lessons.
“Europe has focused a lot on the sustainability in the last five years, but at the same time, due to geopolitical forces, we came to realise that energy cannot be taken for granted,” said Dr. Heijdra.
“The war in Ukraine, and other geopolitical movements, showed us that energy security is important, and if we don’t fix energy security, household energy bills will increase to unsustainable levels, even for rich Europeans.”
Heijdra also revealed how as a donor country, his nation had given poor overseas communities cooking sets but found that recipients couldn’t afford the fuel. He agreed access to energy could “bring prosperity to millions” but stressed the need to work with the local community to understand the dynamics. He also added that what could be done effectively as a “solution in Africa might be different to India”.
