Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, president of the AfDB, revealed that the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative has received $10 billion in support from G7-countries. The support is to aid Africa in reaching the goal of 300 GW of electricity by 2030. Adesina, who disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on December 14 said that electricity would be generated from wind, solar, and other sources.
“In the last two weeks, we have worked hard and we (bank) have launched what is called the African Renewable Energy Initiative. That Africa renewable energy initiative was launched just last week in Paris and it has already garnered 10 billion US dollars as support by the G7-countries. And our goal is to provide Africa with 300 GW of electricity by 2030 all from renewable sources – whether it is from wind, from solar (or) from geothermal,” Adesina said.
He went on to say that “Africa did not go to beg in Paris. Africa contributes only 4% of global green house emission, but we suffer disproportionately in term of the negative impact of climate change. Africa today loses over 50 billion dollars a year from drought, from flood as a result of climate change. There cannot be a successful climate finance agreement unless the needs of Africa are met. And so Africa has been short-changed by climate change but it must not be short-changed by climate finance.”
The AfDB president said that the initiative was to ensure universal access to a sufficient amount of clean, appropriate, and affordable energy. He stated that that the renewable energy program is to help Africa achieve sound and sustainable development.