By Cathy Maulidi:
Minister of Energy Ibrahim Matola has appealed to development partners to consider increasing funding towards clean energy generation in Malawi, a move that would help grow the number of people with access to electricity.
Matola has made the appeal during a virtual address to delegates at the 6th Global Energy International Conference, currently taking place in Beijing, China.
His appeal comes as Malawi has one of the lowest electricity access rates in the world, estimated at 19 percent, with severe disparities between urban and rural areas.
Matola said there is a global shortage of, or insufficient, financing going towards clean cooking despite clean cooking solutions being critical to energy goals which seek to achieve universal access to clean and modern energy by 2030.
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“We, therefore, need to raise our ambitions on this.
We need to unlock finance for this,” Matola said.
He called for concerted efforts and increased funding towards clean cooking solutions if countries, including Malawi, are to meet the set targets.
“While it is critical that we continue to expand connections, energy poverty will remain a challenge if the issue of clean and modern cooking is not addressed. Our focus on energy poverty has been on grid connections and, to a lesser extent, on mini or micro mini-grids.”
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“These initiatives mainly serve the purpose of providing electricity for lighting, powering appliances, and charging mobile phones,” Matola said.
Columbia University professor and president of University Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network Jeffrey Sachs said finances are critical if the world is to meet the climate change targets.
“To meet our goals, we will need to invest heavily in climate change mitigation. Furthermore, let us collaborate with our neighbours by connecting together. We cannot operate in isolation.
“Our neighbours cannot be enemies because no single country can do it alone,” he said.
The 2023 Global Energy Interconnection Conference has been organised by Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organisation.
