Johannesburg - Experts at the African Energy Ministers Conference say climate change cannot be tackled without dealing with issues of access to energy.
Speaking at the conference in Sandton on Thursday, Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said the biggest challenge for African carbon offset projects was securing financing and developing expertise to carry out technical aspects of projects as the continent only accounts for 2% of the registered clean development mechanism projects.
Only 42% of Africans had access to modern energy.
"The power sector in Africa is extremely under-developed," she said, adding that the continent has high emissions, while the majority of residents have no access to energy. "We want to change the picture of a dark Africa."
Peters further said more needed to be done to introduce renewable energy sources in the continent, stressing that the lack of electricity aggravated poverty.
World Bank Energy director for sustainable development in the Africa region, Jamal Saghir, said that the continent was energy rich but power poor.
He said universal electrification on the continent was more than 50 years away, adding that the continent needed to move to other renewable energy sources other than hydro power.
The conference, themed Road to Durban: Promoting sustainable energy access for Africa, called on the continent to speak in one voice.
The energy conference comes ahead of the COP 17 conference to be held in Durban at the end of November.
Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ebrahim Ebrahim, said the African continent was hardest hit by climate change. He said COP 17 presented an opportunity to shape the future global response to climate change.
He called on concerns of all parties to be heard and addressed at the upcoming conference.
Peters added that she has signed a proposal for new nuclear plants. The proposal is expected to go to Cabinet for consideration soon. Cabinet is expected to make its decision on the proposal before the end of 2011. - BuaNews
