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For the first time in decades, the number of people without access to electricity is set to increase in 2022”The challenge is most severe in Sub-Saharan Africa where nearly 600 million people lack access to electricity. Current IEA forecasts raise concerns about meeting SDG7 -Universal access to clean, reliable and affordable energy for Africa. There is no pathway to net zero carbon by 2050 without universal access.
In 2013 when Power Africa was launched there were over 600 million people in Africa without access to electricity. Despite impressive efforts by the U.S., the EU and international organizations and agencies including the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and numerous other agencies, there are still an estimated 600 million people without access to electricity in 2022. Rapid population growth also grows the size of the access deficit. Blocks to progress include crises – COVID19, Russia’s War in Ukraine and its global impacts, regional conflicts, and rising toll of climate change related disasters. Forecasts by the IEA for 2030 show that by 2030 there will still be 600 million people in Africa without access to electricity and with little opportunity for development.
Access to reliable and affordable energy is necessary for subsequent economic, educational and social development. With climate change and multiple crises underway or emerging it needs to be one of the highest priorities to enable access to electricity for all people in Africa. Access to electricity creates the capacity to pay for electrical power and the services made possible by reliable and affordable energy. The people of Africa without access will be able to pay for it. It does not have to be a gift from donor countries.
The education and information technologies now exist to create the capacity for universal access to reliable, sustainable and affordable energy across Sub-Saharan Africa. Working together – the U.S. and the EU with African partners can create the capacity in Africa to assure universal access by 2030. Ten times the goal set by president Obama in 2013 is now possible through international cooperation.
The UN has developed the
Energy Compact program where states, regions, companies, international organizations, NGOs and cities commit to achieve SDG7 by 2030 within their sphere of action. If there were a US-AU-EU partnership with an Energy Compact with a strategy and roadmap for the partnership to achieve universal access for Africa to affordable, clean, reliable, and sustainable energy could be achieved.
The Power Africa partnership would aim to achieve ten times the result envisioned fo the Power Africa initiative at its start in 2013. This is now possible due to the dramatic reductions in solar energy and wind and as well as control and energy storage technologies. Additionally advanced information technologies have emerged to enable effective solutions to complex development, health care, and education challenges that were not available in 2013.
Kenya has emerged as a global leader for AI technologies that can be applied to the complexities of development in environments with minimal modern infrastructures.
Health care in Nigeria is challenged by a severe brain drain of doctors and other medical professions. Space technologies with satellite mega constellations can now deliver health care information to remote sites – but they must have access to electricity to use the technology.
The ANSOLE Energy CompactANSOLE (African Network for Solar Energy) is a pan-African network of universities, research centers, NGOs, community organizations including religious organizations that is addressing the critical need to build research, innovation, and energy technology implementation capacity by local communities. ANSOLE works with European, American, Canadian, African and other partners to advance solar energy research, technology development and community level deployment. The
ANSOLE Energy Compact lays out a roadmap with clearly defined milestones to build the human capacity required to enable development and deployment of sustainable energy solutions in Africa.
This session will explore the potential of an Energy Compact for a U.S.-Africa-Europe partnership to drive achievement of universal access to electricity in Africa by 2030.
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