RENdez-vous Africa: Driving Political Leadership to Support Renewable Energy Use

Wednesday 08 December 2021
Time: 14:00 – 15:30 Central Africa Time (13:00 – 14:30 CET Paris)
(convert to your time zone)

Renewable energy does more than provide the necessary access to affordable clean energy to low-income communities. Their use can also help address other pressing challenges faced by governments across Africa such as job creation, local economic development, air pollution and adaptation to climate impacts. However, decision makers often lack proper data and information on the long-term benefits of renewable energy to adequately balance regulatory constraints, supporting measures for private sector investment and quick access to technologies. Further collaborative action at different levels (local, national and regional) as well as strengthening the political leadership on the value of renewable energy are needed to drive clean and sustainable energy solutions to drive Africa’s economic development.

Join us December 8 for the 2nd event in the RENdez-vous Africa: Dialogue Series. 

“Driving Political Leadership to Support Renewable Energy Use” builds on the outcome of the 1st RENdez-vous event. A panel of business, government and civil society representatives will share their experience in convincing decision makers about the value of renewables. Participants will also be able to discuss their success (or failures) in engaging decision makers. 

Panellists

Click here to quickly complete your registration.

Add a reminder to your calendar
Click here to add the registration link to your calendar.

Competing priorities—economic recovery, stabilising health crisis—exacerbated by COVID-19 are reducing the space for a public discourse for the uptake of renewables and the broader energy transition.

This clearly threatens the momentum renewables have generated over the last decade, and even risks reversing some of the hard-fought gains. The weak links in the sector, i.e. scattered voices, disconnected priorities, limited scale and resources need to be strengthened, particularly in critical hot-spots and in vulnerable countries. We need to work together more strategically, to bring renewables to the centre of attention and planning to drive economic growth, social equity, and innovation.

Doing this requires integrating renewables across all sectors and creating societal support. It is also about building and bringing the community together more strategically, to increase its collective influence in the global energy debate, linking global and local voices.

Making renewable energy mainstream also requires forging bridges outside of the renewable energy bubble well beyond the “usual suspects”. We need to identify, build on and collaborate with players to collectively widen and amplify the renewable energy voice. This means broadening the renewable energy community regionally and into new sectors. It also involves bringing the right information to this community so it can be more effective, strategic and influential.

The strategies and narratives to make renewable energy mainstream differ regionally. We need to understand the underlying drivers and drags to renewables uptake in each region and develop strategies to address or enhance them. In Africa, strategies to move to renewable energy need to be situated in the context of green recovery, energy growth and sustainable development. This is critical to create societal support for renewables, support economic development and innovation and develop a renewable narrative beyond the climate topic.

REN21 hosts these events to inspire and to offer opportunities to learn and share across sectors. While each event is unique, one thing remains consistent: at every RENdez-vous there is time to meet and network with people from the greater renewables community, inclusive of many different sectors. Learn more and join the next event…