Leaders from the G8 countries of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, UK, and USA called for increased investment into cleaner energies for African countries during the G8 Summit held in Tokyo, Japan.
In an announcement by Gordon Brown, the UK’s prime minister, he told media that the G8 Group had pledged around $6 billion to three funds that will be managed by the World Bank, and that another $44 billion would go toward other environmental causes such as eliminating deforestation, low carbon emission energy projects, and assistance in helping nations in need to adjust to the effects of climate change.
Brown also said that the private sector would be approached to increase investment to all developing countries, and the main recipients would be countries in Africa and Asia. In addition to the $44 billion and $6 billion already on the books, Brown said another $117 billion would be raised through private sector financing.
African nations still largely depend on highly pollutant biomass options to meet their energy needs and much investment to cleaner and more efficient energy alternatives for the continent is needed. While there are numerous projects being implemented across the continent in solar, wind, waste-to-energy, etc. they hardly make a dent in bringing energy to the masses; the G8 pledge is a welcome development. The catch now is to see that the G8 follows through on its pledge.