PACJA, partners hold Energy Summit in Nairobi

The planned Energy Summit meeting by the Pan African Climate Justice Climate Alliance (PACJA), The Christian AID, and the GermanWatch holds over the next two days beginning this morning in Nairobi, Kenya.

Dubbed the Pan-African Summit on Just Transition and Energy Democracy (PASJTED), the meeting brings together leading voices in the African continent on issues around energy.

Africa’s energy sector barely accounts for 2% to 4% of global emissions. Its historical contributions to global warming are even less significant. As things stand, the continent has the least emissions reduction responsibility.

Even then, deep emission reductions in African will make little difference to global emission reduction targets. Instead, the continent must grapple with unrivalled levels of energy poverty that stalls growth and primarily affect the poor segments of its population.

 To put this in perspective, Sub-Saharan Africa has four times more people without electricity than anywhere else. Eight hundred million or so people in the region lack access to modern energy. This acute energy poverty has far-reaching consequences for critical development and environmental outcomes. As such, energy transition, and by extension just energy transition, will look different in Africa from other parts of the world.

Beyond emission reductions, it must deliver sustainable energy access capable of lifting millions of Africans out of poverty and disease burdens That is why Just Transition and Energy Democracy are critical for addressing widespread energy poverty in Africa. However, despite wide usage, their implication for transition policies and practice is not fully attuned to Africa’s reality.

The summit is part of the project Ensuring a People-Centred Energy Transition in Africa through Civil Society Engagement which is being coordinated by The Africa Coalition for Sustainable Energy Access (ACSEA), an initiative of the PACJA. 

This summit takes place close to the onset of Africities Summit in Kisumu and will provide additional insights and recommendations on how cities and local governments in Africa can take a lead role in the just transition in the energy sector.