AFRICA needs to scale up investment into climate infrastructure as the continent drives towards universal access to energy characterised also by sustainable emissions and smart renewable energy sources, experts have said.
They said the just-ended inaugural Zimbabwe-Zambia (Zim-Zam) Energy Projects Summit, held in Victoria Falls, was a step in the right direction for the region and continent at large in the clean sustainable renewable energy agenda.
Zimbabwe and Zambia, with largely similar energy policies, held the summit following encouragement by both public and private sector stakeholders at the Africa Energy Forum in Barcelona for EnergyNet to consider hosting an investor retreat focused on Zambia and Zimbabwe to unpack challenges and opportunities that can feed into the regional grid.
The event ran under the theme “Powering Zimbabwe and Zambias Sustainable Energy Future: Unlocking Opportunities in Renewables, Grid Modernisation and Energy Access.”
On its part, Zimbabwe targets to attend to the electricity connections backlog by 2024, end load-shedding by 2025, end power imports by 2026, start net power exports by 2028, deliver a world-class public lighting system by 2029 and complete universal access to electricity and data by 2030.
Experts from Allied Talent Partners (ATP), a Pan-African matchmaker that connects experts with climate-related projects with a focus on Africa, said there is a need for a significant scale-up of climate infrastructure, urging companies in the continent to grow energy access in Africa targeting global zero emissions.
ATP is a new initiative incubated and funded by Three Cairns Group with the vision of enabling successful climate action projects that are central to the renewable energy agenda.
The organisation has oices in Nairobi, Kenya, Lagos in Nigeria, and Johannesburg in South Africa with plans to expand to Zimbabwe and Zambia among other countries.
Many renewable energy projects in Zimbabwe and Zambia as well as in the region are either stalled or failing to take off largely due to funding, bottlenecks, and bureaucracy among other factors.
Ms McNelly noted that there is a need for increased investment in human capital to scale up. She said a variety of solutions are needed, including identifying critical skills gaps, growing the human capital base, and providing growth opportunities.
ATP head of strategy, Ms Zandile Hlatywayo said Africa can overcome energy crises through matchmaking and collaboration which is also key for regional integration.
“We are an organisation that seeks to tackle the climate crisis from a human capital perspective and our role is to play a matchmaker in the energy ecosystem matching those who are looking for project-based work and flexible ways of working and climate-related projects on the continent, be it renewable energy companies and corporates,” she said.
Ms Hlatywayo said AATP helps bring such partners together to drive high-impact projects on the continent, especially around water, energy, environment and others related to climate action.
“We are looking at needs and projects driven by renewable energy and to understand what role we can play in the ecosystem like introducing them for collaboration. We understand that there are quite several challenges to achieving our climate goals,” she said.
The world has over 600 million people without access to electricity while the energy crisis is biting many countries due to droughts and other issues.