Meet Jasper Kassoma, championing the Energy Just Transition in Namibia

Jasper Kassoma is a youth born and raised in “the land of Braves”, Namibia. He is one of the youths who attended the third edition of the Nairobi Summer School on Climate Justice, an initiative of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA). Before attending the NSSCJ training in 2023, Kassoma was working on an energy transition agenda, through NGO, the Namibian Youth on Renewable Energy where, with fellow Namibian youth, was pushing harder to ensure that young people are participating and are empowered to participate in the renewable energy agenda.

He shared with us a success story about what he is doing in the community.

What challenges were you addressing and how are you dealing with them?

Namibia, I must say, is one of the countries that has higher energy poverty because we import about 70% of our energy from the Southern African energy power pool. This will also mean about 50% of the population or less that do not have access to the grid, which becomes a burden to the general population in terms of how they can come up with initiatives that can improve their livelihood. Because you don’t have electricity, you can’t do much.

For agriculture, for example, conventional agriculture, if you want water pumps, it’s a challenge because you don’t have access to the grid.

We have seen that there’s an opportunity in terms of going for renewable energy because if you have a solar panel, you can just have your water pump in your yard, which is kind of easier for farmers to set up.

It doesn’t require this whole bureaucratic process. This is why we try to have as many young people engage, we try to capacitate them also to make sure that they understand when they are engaging what the legislature, what the law is saying, and they are really operating within the parameters of the law and many times they don’t have this kind of information.

So, we build awareness, and then we build capacity in terms of legislation, in terms of how they can operate within the parameter of the law, and also how they can get involved in setting up with some of or rather contributing to some of the policy. This can only be possible if you have proactive public participation and super-inclusive participation. We ensure that all these social groups, the marginalized people, the women, and young people, are given a platform where they can now share their views or rather have their voices heard.

How did the Nairobi Summer School on Climate Justice contribute to what you are doing in the community?

Before I joined the Nairobi Summer School, I wasn’t well, capacitated and I had ideas all over the place. I can testify that after the Nairobi Summer School, I was instilled with the knowledge to identify which are the false climate solutions and which are the true climate solutions. This helped me to navigate how I can avoid greenwashing; and in the process also to help the next person next to me to say that, no, these are some of the greenwashing initiatives that are happening in the country.

And we try really to ensure that young people are not falling for that trap, and for Africa in general, we should have a position also on how we can engage in the whole just energy transition agenda. This will also translate, for example, in a community that only depends on, using firewood for cooking, how do you make sure that they understand the whole trans just energy transition agenda? how do they, how can they grasp this concept and ensure that they are also on board? This has been some of the gaps that we have been trying to understand. So, from the summer school, it was easier for me now to identify and move forward. So, I was given a roadmap, which I’m thankful.

As a youth, how are you amplifying what you learnt from Nairobi Summer School?

As time goes on, we try really as the Namibian youth on renewable energy to work with different partners, different stakeholders from civil society organizations, and youth-led organizations, to women and then the marginalized community. We also try to partner now with the local authorities.

For example, when we went for a roadmap in the south of Namibia, which is a region that has been projected to go for these green hydrogen projects, so we went there, we spoke with the local authority and then who is now the rhythm local authority or town council, then we engage the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture to such a point that they give us a platform to go and talk to learners in high schools.

So, we are really trying to give them the best available science and how they can have a broader understanding of the whole renewable energy and explain to them why should we as a country push for renewable energy.

And interestingly you know, Lüderitz, it’s one of the towns which has a windmill. And this windmill is a town that is sitting in a very sensitive area. It’s a desert, a desert that is endemic to some of our species, such as the bat and this bigger windmill.

Many times, we have cases of birds being killed by the windmill. So, we’re like, we must also now try to find a cost-benefit or whether to conduct a cost-benefit analysis and ensure that we don’t cause harm to our ecosystem, we maintain a healthy ecosystem.

In our quest for just Energy Transition, we had a memorandum of understanding with some of the UIS Youth Forum where we said “Look, we have a partnership with the vocational training institutions such as the Windhoek Vocational Training Institute, which really help us in many ways”.

We have a good working relationship with Namibia University of Science and Technology and of course, the International University of Management, UNAM, which are some of the institutions that give vocational training centers.

And the German government, through SASSCAL, also put up initiatives where they fund or rather a scholarship program where they are funding young people to go for vital vocational education and vocational training centres around the globe. So, it’s something that has been really impactful to me and I really appreciate the help of these partners.

Recently we conducted a local conference of young people, or rather the local conference of youth in Namibia that has been funded, fully funded by the European Union, GIZ and of course UNDP. The Ministry of Environment has also been proactive in working with us in many ways and I should applaud them for always being on standby and willing to engage and be open to us.

What are the Challenges may you be facing in your journey for Just Energy Transition?

Maybe the challenge that I’m seeing in terms of participation is from some of the key stakeholders such as the Ministry of Mine and Energy, which is also custodian of energy production within the country through their stakeholder enterprises such as NamPower.

We are not seeing communities being involved in some of their activities. I still think this is a challenge that can be addressed. We must just find really meaningful ways on how we can engage.

Have you ever interacted with the Government or Partners of the cause you are pursuing?

I’m really happy that through the LCOY I managed to go for COP 2029 and at COP,  I was engaging with our Minister of Environment. I engaged with the members of the national assembly, our parliamentarians, and those who are responsible for natural resource management.

And for now, if you, you know, Namibia is going massively on the oil exploration and it’s something that for us in the environmental fraternity we are really concerned about because we feel like we are contradicting ourselves and we are not really pushing for what we believe can be sustainable and our young or rather future generation can also tap into some of these resources.

But if you continue going for oil, it’s something that it’s already a well-established industry that many times lacks the ethics and sorry. This is something that I still believe that we can work on strongly for us as well as Nairobi Summer School alumni.  I understand we have quite a few in Namibia that have been participating. So, this program of Nairobi Summer School gives us first-hand information and guidelines on how we can tackle some of these environmental challenges and engage in environmental affairs.

So, you say that the Nairobi Summer School on Climate Justice is Relevant?

I see the Nairobi Summer School as being relevant. It gives you leadership skills, it gives you the psychology of negotiations, and it also positions you in a society where you can explore and express yourself freely in terms of how you can stand up for relief for our communities. Finally, it has been objective in many ways because we use the best available science to justify our arguments. We are not just giving or rather sharing our opinions for the sake of saying something, but we are ensuring the argument of what the science is telling us and this is why we need to take action. We believe that we only have one planet and we only have this life to live. So, we must make use of it before you, you know, inspire before you expire.