Access to Energy

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has the lowest energy access rates in the world. Electricity reaches only about half of its people, while clean cooking only one-third; roughly 600 million people lack electricity and 890 million cooks with traditional fuels (IEA, 2018). Though the continent is rich in renewable energy sources, which include hydro, sun, wind, Geothermal and waste to energy (WtE) but these forms of energy are not fully exploited due to the lack of resources, human capacity, and technology. Lack of clean cooking burdens economies and limits human productivity for the region’s population. This welfare cost is born largely by women and children through premature death and sickness. SSA countries lack comprehensive clean cooking strategies where clean cooking strategies exist, implementation is weak and provided with little finance such that even modest gains are hard to obtain.

ACEF will be in the forefront in providing strategies and ambition of clean cooking goals which help governments to attract development financing to support implementation. Policies and financing for clean cooking should be integrated into poverty alleviation and health strategies at the national level. The gender element is crucial, ranging from awareness-raising campaigns to directly engaging women as champions and as entrepreneurs. ACEF will participate in clean energy revolution in Africa, which is urgently needed to win the fight against energy poverty. Clean energy provides a golden thread to deliver on the promise of Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement. Which will help unlocking sustainable economic growth, improve human health and well-being and help women and children to lead a more productive life (UN, 2018; NCE, 2018). Apart from direct economic and social benefits, clean energy will raise human security and build resilience in states and communities to help limit the risk of large-scale migration across the African continent (Rigaud et al., 2018).