The Federal Government has described energy poverty and climate change as serious challenges to Africa and said they must be adequately addressed for the continent to attain global goals.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva at a three day, Nigeria-Africa Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit in Abuja said, both climate change and energy poverty should be addressed in a sustainable manner.
Sylva said in the face of the current high level of energy poverty worldwide, especially in Africa, all energy sources would be required to achieve sustainable development goals by providing access to affordable, reliable and modern energy.
“The theme of the summit was very apt and timely at this challenging time in the energy industry globally” Silver added.
“At the core of this challenge is the issue of climate change that is eliciting clamour for transition to greener energy sources to reduce carbon emission.
“It is imperative that every nation and region come up with a green initiative to foster collective combat against the incessant threat to the planet caused by carbon emission, as such initiatives must be bold, decisive and on target.
He explained that the key consideration in every country’s energy policy should be pivoted on energy security; this constitutes a very high priority goal for nations all over the globe; adding that the reason is not far-fetched, as energy propels economic growth.
“That makes energy security synonymous with optimum and sustainable economic growth; energy is an indispensable ingredient for human development and socio-economic prosperity. It is central to job creation, security, health, and other challenges facing humans,” he said.
According to sylva, this is why access to energy is prominently addressed in the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development Goals, in particular, SDG 7 focuses on access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all, as a fundamental right.
He said as of today, energy poverty was still much prevalent in the world, especially in Africa where millions of people do not have access to electricity or clean cooking fuels.
Quoting the UN data, he said that about 760 million people lack access to electricity worldwide, with three out of four of them living in sub-Saharan Africa.
The minister said that one-third of the world’s population (about 2.6 billion people) had no access to clean cooking fuels, with over 900 million of these in sub-Saharan Africa.
He said on average, only 48 per cent of Sub-Saharan Africa’s population had access to electricity, while only 18 per cent also have access to clean cooking fuels, compared with a global average of 90 per cent and 70 per cent respectively.
The Minister said the World Bank statistics showed that the world average of carbon emissions was 4.48 metric tons per capita in 2018, with some regions and individual countries recording five to seven times this value.
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