Kigali — Significant progress has been made in Africa in providing access to energy, with an encouraging 43% access rate for the continent achieved in 2016. However, efforts are still needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal on energy, SDG 7, aiming at ensuring access to sustainable energy for all.
This is the theme of the Sustainable Energy Forum 2018 for East Africa, organized this week in Kigali by the East African Community and its partners, to review progress and exchange experiences among EAC countries towards the achievement of SDG 7, as well as to harmonize energy policies, build partnerships and scale-up investments.
"Creative new policies and sustained investment in the sector are required to close the prevailing gaps in energy access," said Yohannes Hailu, energy policy expert at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, ECA. "Better access to clean cooking technologies and improved energy efficiency should be our areas of focus", he added.
The rate of improvement in access to energy has been accelerating. Globally, more than 100 million people per year have achieved access to energy since 2012, compared with just 62 million per year between 2000 and 2012. Access in Kenya reached more than 65% of the population in 2016, and was above 30% in both Tanzania and Rwanda, based on global energy access tracking.
However, due to continued population growth and challenges in the energy sector, the region is still likely to miss 2030 targets, if investments aren't scaled-up. By 2030, out of the 674 million people that will still lack access to electricity globally, about 600 million will be in Sub-Saharan Africa; moreover, more than 900 may still lack access to clean cooking technologies on the continent. Progress made so far needs to be accelerated in order to achieve SDG 7.
The ECA in Eastern Africa is currently supporting EAC regional energy policy harmonization, notably through the adoption of Africa's first regional Energy Security Policy Framework. The EAC also plans to develop an Energy Efficiency Strategy and a framework to develop renewable energy technologies, again with the support of the ECA.
