European Union and Mozambique sign joint declaration on renewable energy

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European Union and Mozambique sign joint declaration on renewable energy

1:51 CAT | 17 Nov 2016

Lusa (File photo)

The European Union yesterday signed a joint declaration with Mozambique at the 22nd UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP22) in Marrakech, Morocco, pledging to support the development of the renewable energy sector in the country.

The signing took place at the European Union Pavilion on the day COP22 devoted its activities to the African continent.

“We need to transform the commitments of the Paris Agreement and increase access to energy in a context of lower carbon emissions. We are making a concerted effort to ensure access to clean and renewable energy and to combat climate change,” European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica said.

According to the National Director of the Environment, Ivete Maibaze, present at the signing of the joint declaration, Mozambique’s Ministry of Energy is leading the survey of renewable potential in the country.

“However, unfortunately we do not have sufficient resources to invest in [the survey]. These initiatives are helping to build capacity to identify potentialities. It will be a very ambitious budget considering that Mozambique is among least developed countries and we need to electrify rural areas that are currently without access to power,” Maibaze told Lusa.

In addition to the EU, representatives from 13 European countries – Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway, also signed the joint declaration.

The objective will be to support Mozambique in the elaboration and review of policies, to exchange technical knowledge, to help identify and design projects in the energy sector and to promote the mobilisation of the private sector in the use of renewable technologies.

According to the Portuguese Secretary of State for Energy, Jorge Seguro Sanches, Portugal is “one of the best examples worldwide in the field of renewable energies”.

“At the moment we are discussing climate change, which has to do with how we manage our relationship with energy. Portugal, due to its technical experts and knowledge, has much to share with other countries. Mozambique will have Portugal’s full support,” Sanches told Lusa.

Sanches said Mozambique should draw on the Portuguese example to develop a variety of renewable sources incorporating hydroelectric, wind and solar energy.

“The balance between these three large clean renewable sources is the secret we can share with the rest of the world,” he said.

COP 22 runs in Marrakech until Friday. The conference comes one year after the Paris Agreement, where 195 United Nations member states approved an agreement to limit global warming, holding the increase in the global average temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius.

The challenge facing COP22 is to reach consensus on how to implement the Paris Agreement.

Source: Lusa