Cooperation for cleaner energy is necessary

An African renewable energy expert has called on developing countries to obtain more accessible renewable energy technologies through global North-South and South-South cooperation.

China Daily moderated a panel discussion on “Renewable Energy – Ensuring a Safer Future” on Wednesday at the SDG Media Zone on the sidelines of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

The SDG Media Zone, organized by the UN Department of Global Communications, is a media program aimed at accelerating action towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The discussion took place the day after the World Summit on Renewable Energy Sources on the sidelines of the General Assembly. The summit highlighted the UAE Consensus goal: to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030 and keep the 1.5°C target within reach.

“When I speak from an African perspective, it’s not just about tripling, but about quintupling renewable energy. If our goal is to increase renewable energy capacity fivefold, we don’t have time to argue about policy or compare approaches,” Wangari Muchiri, Africa director at the Global Renewables Alliance, said during a panel discussion. He also represents the Global Wind Energy Council, which includes the five largest original equipment manufacturers from China and the West.

“I come from a developing country myself and when I try to import a solar panel to Kenya, I have to pay 30 percent more in capital costs, then pay all the import duties and finally wait for the delivery of the solar panel so that I can deploy it in a solar farm,” she said, adding that the process must be faster and easier to access.

“This means diversifying our supply chains and working in global North-South and South-South cooperation to transfer technology,” she said.

Threats to the supply chain

Concerns about the diversification of clean energy supply chains stem from the concentration of critical production of minerals – such as cobalt, lithium and rare earth elements, or REEs – in a few regions, which poses risks to supply chain stability.

For example, the Democratic Republic of the Congo supplies 70 percent of the world’s cobalt and China 60 percent of REE. Australia and Chile dominate lithium mining.

“Now, to meet the target of tripling new renewable energy by 2030, we will need many more key minerals. We must create opportunities for these resource-rich developing countries to truly benefit from the value of raw material addition, industrial development and investment,” said Ditte Juul Jorgensen, co-chair of the UN Secretary-General’s Panel on Critical Transition Minerals for Energy.

Jorgensen, who is also director-general for energy at the European Commission, called for the diversification of the supply chain.

Muchiri called for changes to intellectual property law to make it easier to share technology.

“We need some changes in intellectual property laws to figure out how we can share,” she said.

Francesco La Camera, director general of the International Renewable Energy Agency, said during the panel that time is the most important factor in the fight against climate change because “climate physics does not allow us to delay. If we don’t act now, we will pay for the damage later.”