Climate Change and Mitigation

A large segment of Africa’s population, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and in the rural areas of the continent’s middle-income countries, lives in conditions of acute ‘energy poverty’. Africa’s policy-makers face a formidable challenge of simultaneously reducing energy poverty while also responding to the increasing energy demand triggered by robust economic growth.

Africa’s policymakers thus face a formidable challenge of simultaneously having to reduce the energy poverty while also responding to the increasing energy demand triggered by robust economic growth.

The challenge becomes much more complex when one adds the requirement of moving to a low-carbon economy, adaptation of new technologies, and undertaking substantial investments to achieve a sustainable energy scenario. Alongside these challenges come some unprecedented opportunities for the region to use international assistance in the transfer of technology to utilize its vast renewable energy resources, and to improve the technical and institutional efficiencies of various segments of the energy sector.