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African Regional Implementation Review for the 14^th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-14)

Report on "Energy for Sustainable Development" in AFRICA (Full version)¹

Prepared by the Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) on behalf of the Joint Secretariat of UNECA, UNEP, UNIDO, UNDP, ADB and NEPAD Secretariat

TABLE OF CONTENT

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF BOXES

LIST OF FIGURES

ACRONYMS

PREFACE

The Commission on Sustainable Development, at its fourteenth session (CSD-14) in April 2006, will undertake a review of progress made at all levels in the implementation of targets and goals on the thematic cluster of "Energy for Sustainable Development, Atmosphere/Air Pollution, Climate Change and Industrial Development".

The present report is the African regional review of progress made at regional and sub-regional levels in the implementation of the commitments, goals and targets related to the theme of "energy for sustainable development" as agreed upon in Agenda 21 (A21), the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 (PFIA21), the ninth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-9) and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI).

Scope of the Report

This report reviews activities undertaken, and progress made by various organizations at regional, sub-regional and international levels, to achieve the commitments, goals and targets agreed during the above-mentioned meetings.

Actions reviewed and documented hereafter do not intend to exhaustively represent all initiatives taken by every development actor in Africa. To carry out such a comprehensive review would have required more consultations, means and goodwill from all actors. The report is mainly based on the compilation of responses to surveys sent to major regional, sub-regional and international organizations active in energy in Africa. Where information was obtained from other sources on the work done by organizations which did not respond to the survey, such information was included in the report. Finally, progress made at national levels will not be assessed in this report. Individual countries will report on their national situations separately to the CSD.

As the Secretary-General's report will focus on progress in implementation, this report is based on data, quantitative and qualitative information in the form of factual evidence sent by various organizations.

Organization of the report

The report comprises five main sections:

Section 1 presents an overview of the current African energy situation, highlighting the energy potential of the continent, its pattern of energy production and consumption, and the link between energy, poverty reduction and sustainable development.

Section 2 reviews the goals, targets and commitments made at A21, PFIA21, CSD9, and WSSD, and recalls the main energy issues from an African perspective.

Section 3 makes a critical assessment of the progress made in the implementation of the four main issue areas identified, which are "Energy accessibility for poverty alleviation", "Changing patterns of energy production and consumption", "Development of advanced and cleaner energy technologies", and "Crosscutting issues including finance, international, capacity building, regional trade, technology transfers, etc".

Section 4 summarizes the constraints identified by the actors in implementing the commitments, and recalls other key challenges to energy development in Africa.

Section 5 draws lessons from the identified constraints, and maps a way forward through specific recommendations addressed to various energy stakeholders.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Africa is endowed with diverse energy resources, including important reserves of oil, gas and coal that account for 9.4%, 7.9% and 5.54% respectively of the world total². The hydropower potential of the continent amounts to 13% of the world. In Africa, energy is produced mainly from biomass (47%), oil (24.8%), coal (16.5%), gas (10.4%), and other renewable sources, such as large and small hydro damps, solar, and geothermal sources (1.3%)³. The continent has abundant solar irradiation ranging from 5 to 7 kWh/m², all year round, and it enjoys a relatively strong wind power potential in Northern, Southern and Eastern Africa. Furthermore, the continent has an estimated geothermal energy potential of 9,000 MW in the Rift Valley area in East Africa⁴.

Energy consumption in Africa is largely dominated by combustible renewable resources (biomass, animal wastes, municipal and industrial wastes). Energy from biomass accounts for more than 30% of the energy consumed in Africa and more than 80% in many SSA countries. Biomass constitutes the main energy resource for the large majority of African households for cooking, drying and space heating. While electricity access data varies widely depending on the reporting sources, IEA data reports average rates ranging from 70% to over 94% in Northern Africa, and 23% in sub-Saharan Africa, with large disparities between countries (for instance less than 4% in Uganda compared to 66% in South Africa or 100% in Mauritius), and between urban and rural areas, where in the latter, rates can be as low as 1%⁵.

Review of goals, targets and commitments made at A21, PFIA21, CSD-9 and WSSD

A21, PFIA21, CSD-9, and WSSD all recognized that energy issues must be given high priority by policy-makers, financial institutions, regional organizations, development actors, and all stakeholders if one is to achieve the MDG and sustainable development on the continent. Energy considerations should be appropriately integrated into socioeconomic programmes and into the planning, operation and maintenance of long-lived energy consuming infrastructures.

The WSSD calls upon the international community to reinvigorate its commitment to address the special challenges facing Africa, mobilize resources for effective support for Africa's efforts to implement NEPAD objectives, and other initiatives on energy on the continent.

Commitments, targets and goals made by the various actors during the above-mentioned meetings, can be clustered into the four issue-based categories discussed below.

Assessment of accomplishments and gaps

Issue 1: Energy accessibility for poverty alleviation

To address the problem of energy accessibility, various organizations undertook a large array of measures, including: Energy access scale-up initiatives; Productive use of rural/renewable Energy; Capacity development and investment in mini-hydro power systems; and Development of an African regional rural electrification programme.

The issue of accessibility to modern energy was linked to poverty alleviation efforts in some cases, but, unfortunately, not always. The need for more generation capacity has been recognized; however, efforts to solve the problem stumble over chronic lack of public funding and little interest of investors and financial institutions in the African energy market, mainly due to numerous disincentive measures built into national, institutional, policy, legal and regulatory frameworks.

Still, with close to two-thirds of Africans without access to modern energy and trapped in economic poverty, there is much to be done at all levels to achieve commitments.

Issue 2: Changing patterns of energy consumption and production

Activities undertaken by various actors on this issue include: Sustainable Transport Action Network for Africa (SUSTRAN-Africa); Wood Energy Information System (WEIS); Improving Energy Efficiency (EE) in small industries and in cities and developing EE and Energy Service Companies (ESCO); Development of Renewable Energy; Development of rural energy enterprises; and removing barriers for the development of RE. These diverse actions have not succeeded in increasing the share of RE in the energy mix, generating substantial energy savings, protecting forests and increasing access to modern energy.

Initiatives taken for changing consumption and production patterns for sustainable development have essentially lacked the strong political support from national governments that they require, and the minimum critical scale of projects that can create a momentum of change. Activities are much too localized, not promoted enough and often too controversial to be intuitively understood by African people and adopted by most governments.

Issue 3: Development of advanced and cleaner energy technologies and fuels

This issue was not viewed as a priority for the continent, though advanced energy technologies may provide answers to the problems of decentralized rural energy development and energy efficiency. Consequently, in this domain, few actions were carried out with the exception of some capacity building and networking initiatives. A lot more could be done especially in providing support to local research centers and universities, and in promoting innovative local energy enterprise ideas, based on indigenous material and locally available resources.

Issue 4: General and crosscutting Issues

Support to NEPAD energy programmes

Considerable efforts were deployed by the international and African communities to promote NEPAD and support its energy initiatives. Many UN special organs and organizations have responded well to NEPAD. Despite this goodwill, NEPAD energy initiatives have not made the anticipated progress and many initial expectations of African people remain unmet.

Financial issues

Like other development sectors in Africa, the energy sector suffers from meager funding and reduced financial options. Funding levels in the African energy sector remain very low and have not increased significantly for many years. Programmes such as the ADB FINESSE and various UNEP Finance initiatives dealt with the problem of capacity building within financial institutions in order to raise awareness and increase the share of energy investments in their portfolio. The sector received investments from various sources including regional and international financial institutions, as well as multilateral organizations. Analysis however shows that the sector is still under-funded and run the risks to collapse further unless business-as usual approaches are changed.

Capacity building

Several actions were implemented to strengthen the capacity of energy planners and developers; education and research institutions; and Centers of Excellence. Formal training and networking schemes were used. Overall, African human capacity in energy is viewed by most African policy-makers as adequate to make progress. However, national and sub-regional institutions are often severely under-equipped in communication and information management tools.

Gaps in actions implemented proceed from the small number of capacity enhancement programmes aimed at addressing the needs of sub-regional organizations such as the RECs, Power Pools, etc. Therefore, they remain a weak link when it comes to designing and implementing regional integration projects that normally fall under their leadership.

Constraints and challenges to achieve targets

Analysis of the African energy sector reveals a continent that is undersupplied in modern energy. When energy is available, it is supplied in a form that is usually inappropriate for the needs of the majority of people and economically unaffordable by most of those who have access to it. Some specific challenges in the sector can be identified as: Low energy production due to largely untapped energy resource potential; Uneven regional distribution of energy resources; Weak share of Renewable Energy in the energy mix; Low oil refinery capacity; Underdeveloped transport, transmission and distribution infrastructure; Low private sector participation and investment in the energy sector; Very low access to energy in rural Africa; Non-efficient utilization of energy; and Inadequate policy, regulatory and institutional framework.

Lessons learned

The following lessons could be distilled from the responses to the review surveys:

• It is important to take full account of the specific human, economic and environmental constraints of the African context in designing solutions;

• African governments need to translate their commitments into stronger political will and support for energy development activities initiated by their partners;

• Increase exchanges of innovative approaches to address problems related to energy for development between Asia, Latin America and Africa;

• Emphasize trainings in energy analysis and modeling; and

• Put more efforts in boosting the development of RE.

Way Forward

Major initiatives must be taken and scaled up at all levels to make progress, particular to:

Prioritize efficient institutional, regulatory and policy frameworks

African policy-makers are urged to pay special consideration to policy measures which clarify the role of various stakeholders (public and private); improve investments climate in general through more favourable legal and regulatory reforms; strengthen the role of independent energy regulatory bodies and lift barriers to the realization of regional integration projects in energy.

Increase financial flows towards the African energy sector

International development partners, including the UN, should enhance their role to support African Nations to undertake the necessary reforms conducive to a coherent, transparent and attractive investment framework and increase their advocacy and funding function to mobilize and significantly increase financial flow towards Africa for investment in energy projects. Commitments made to set the NEPAD energy initiatives, as priority for the continent, should be reinforced.

Improve the share of RE in the African energy mix

African Governments should put in place coherent regulatory and policy frameworks that support the development of thriving markets for renewable energy technologies and recognize the important role of the private sector. This includes removing barriers; allowing fair competition in energy markets; and taking into account the concept of internalizing external costs for all energy sources.

Promote energy regional integration as a catalyst for development

The RECs, with the support of international partners, must pursue with dedication, their efforts to promote regional energy trade as an efficient means to reduce the uneven distribution of energy resources in Africa; reduce energy import cost burdens on most national economies; and increase the supply of secure and environmentally sustainable energy.

AFREC should receive more assistance to accelerate the achievement of energy integration between all African regions, through up-to-date energy information as well as regional and national capacity development of pertinent energy-decisions tools.

Link rural energy development programmes to poverty reduction strategies and the achievement of the MDG

International development partners, regional, sub-regional and national energy stakeholders should view the energy access problem as inseparable from poverty reduction efforts and economic growth strategies. They should, therefore, be willing to drastically increase their financial participation in the sector and assist in the development of key infrastructure that can sustain the minimum economic growth required to break the cycle of poverty and achieve the MDG.

Promote coordination and coherence among all international partners

More efforts must be made by all energy stakeholders, especially UN organizations, to create coherence, complementarities and effectiveness in energy policy initiatives in Africa. This can be achieved in the framework of a collaborative mechanism such as UN-Energy/Africa.

SECTION I

A Brief Assessment of the Current Energy Situation in Africa

• What is energy used for in Africa?

Most social and economic activities require the use of energy in various forms and quantities. Energy is as important to households for basic uses, such as cooking, heating and lighting as it is to large industries for production of heavy goods or to fuel automobiles. The world consumed, in 2002, a staggering amount of 7,095 million tons of Oil Equivalent (MTOE) in the form of oil, natural gas, coal, electricity and combustible renewables and waste⁶. For its development, the world thirst for energy is growing at a faster rate than ever. According to recent BP statistics, energy consumption grew by 4.3% between 2003 and 2004⁷. In countries, mostly in the developing world, where the availability of energy is limited or where energy is economically unaffordable to most households or the society in general, development is seriously impaired, and growth limited. Energy is thus an essential ingredient for socioeconomic development. Rightfully then, issues of energy supply, access and security, as well as issues related to the impact of the consumption and production patterns of energy on the world sustainability, have been at the core of the world attention for decades.

Figure 1: Primary Energy Supply by Fuel in Africa in 2002

• Statistical overview of energy resources in Africa

Africa is relatively well endowed with energy resources. In 2004, its proved oil, gas and coal reserves were 9.4%, 7.9% and 5.54% respectively of the world total, compared to 8.5%, 4% and 2.19% respectively for South and Central America, taken together. The hydropower potential of the continent amounts to 13% of the world. In Africa, energy is produced mainly from biomass (47%), oil (24.8%), coal (16.5%), gas (10.4%), and other renewable sources, such as large and small hydro damps, solar, and geothermal sources (1.3%)⁸ (Figure 1). However, Africa is a vast continent with 53 countries and energy resources are unevenly regionally located. Most of the hydropower potential lies in central and western Africa, oil and gas resources are located in the western and northern parts of the continent, coal reserves are concentrated almost exclusively in Southern Africa, and geothermal is only being developed in eastern Africa. It is apparent from Figures 2 and 3 that 68% of all proved natural gas reserves of the continent is located in two countries (Nigeria and Algeria), while more than 74% of proved oil reserves is found in Nigeria and Libya. These three countries hold the large majority oil and natural gas reserves of the continent. Because of its geographical location across the equator, Africa has abundant solar irradiation ranging from 5 to 7 kWh/m², all year round, and it enjoys a relatively strong wind power potential in Northern, Southern and Eastern Africa. Finally, the continent has an estimated geothermal energy potential of 9000 MW in the Rift Valley area in East Africa⁹. Based on these potential and reserves, it could have been possible to achieve a well-balanced energy generation mix on the continent. However, due to numerous barriers this is not currently the case.

Figure 2: Proved Natural Gas Reserves in Africa, in 2004¹⁰

Figure 3: Proved Oil Reserves in Africa, 2005

• Statistical overview of the energy consumption and production

Africa exports more of its energy than it consumes. In the last decade, oil, natural gas, and electricity production have increased by 48.1%, 24.3% and 32.8% respectively, while coal production increased much less (Figure 4). In absolute terms, oil remains the largest source of modern energy in Africa, with production reaching 441 MTOE in 2004, which represents 11.4% of the world total. In Southern Africa, efforts for improving the energy resource mix through more import of electricity within the Southern African Power Pool, led to a slower increase in coal production.

Figure 4: Coal, natural gas, and oil production in Africa

Despite its relatively important energy resources, Africa generates only 3.1% of the world electricity, less than any other region of the world (Figure 5). This share has not changed for the last 10 years and most analysts forecast that it will remain the case for the next 15 years, though production of fuels used for electricity will continue to grow steadily. Electricity is generated mainly from coal (46%), gas (23%), hydro (18%), oil (11%) and nuclear (2%) (Figure 6). Other renewable sources such as solar, geothermal, wind, etc. play an insignificant role despite some noteworthy initiatives such as the 140 MW wind farms in Egypt. On the continent there are strong disparities among countries: South Africa alone generates close to half of the total African electricity. Many African countries, mostly in SSA with the exception of South Africa, rely heavily on hydropower (70% to 80%) for their electricity generation.

Figure 5: Electricity generation by region

Figure 6: Electricity generation in Africa by fuel, 2002

With 13.1% of the world's total population, Africa consumes only 5.5% of the world energy. The per capita energy consumption of 0.5 TOE, far lower than the world average of 1.2 TOE per capita, makes the continent lag behind all the others in energy use.

Energy consumption in Africa is largely dominated by combustible renewable resources (biomass, animal wastes, municipal and industrial wastes). Energy from biomass accounts for more than 30% of the energy consumed in Africa and more than 80% in some countries such as Burundi (91%), Rwanda and Central Africa Republic (90%), Mozambique (89%), Burkina Faso (87%), Benin (86 %), Madagascar and Niger (85 %)¹¹. Biomass constitutes the main energy resource for the large majority of African households for cooking, drying and space heating. Several million people are involved in the production, distribution and sale of fuelwood and charcoal. From 1994 to 2004, primary energy consumption increased by 24% (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Modern energy consumption trend in Africa

All African countries consume some oil mainly for transportation, electricity generation and industries regardless of whether they have refinery capacities or not (Figure 8). Gas consumption, however, is limited mostly to the few countries that produce it, such as Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, or those that are located in close proximity with them. This is explained by the lack of transboundary pipeline infrastructure for the transportation of natural gas. South Africa, with its large reserve of coal, is the only country with a significant use of coal.

Figure 8: Energy consumption per sector

In 2002, the continent electricity consumption was only 514 kWh per capita, lowest of all other world regions. The very limited availability of electricity combined with affordability issues to electricity services in most countries in Africa, have made access to electricity by most Africans very elusive. While electricity access data varies widely depending on the reporting sources, IEA data reports rates ranging from 70% to over 94% in Northern Africa, and an average of 23% in sub-Saharan Africa, in 2002. These numbers do not reflect the large disparities between countries (for instance less than 4% in Uganda compared to 66% in South Africa or 100% in Mauritius), and between urban and rural areas, where in the latter, rates can be as low as 1%¹².

• Link between energy, poverty and economic development

Limited availability of modern energy critically impairs socioeconomic development. Industries and productive activities (agriculture, commerce) require energy in various forms to fuel machines, power transformation processes, conserve perishable goods, ensure transport, etc. According to UNIDO, high levels of income per capita tend to be associated with higher levels of industrialization¹³.

Though, not specifically referred to in the targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), energy supply is an underlining requirement to achieve most of the MDGs. Without access to adequate energy services, the majority of Africans would continue to suffer from deep poverty, since energy is required for most basic household needs, such as cooking and heating. According to World Bank indicators, there is a strong correlation between modern energy consumption and GNP per capita. The GNP tends to rapidly increase as per capita commercial energy use increases, mainly for low-income countries. When the countries reach a level of per capita energy consumption of around 10.000 TOE, factors such as efficient utilization of energy by industries, energy production and transformation systems and households tend to make the difference for economic growth to continue; therefore, more energy consumption does no longer imply more income for the country (Figure 9).

Figure 9. Energy consumption versus GNP
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators database.

Figure 9. Energy consumption versus GNP

Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators database.

SECTION II

Review of goals, targets and commitments made at A21, PFIA21, CSD-9 and WSSD

Agenda 21 (A21), the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 (PFIA21), the 9^th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD9), and the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), all recognized that energy issues must be given high priority by policy makers, financial institutions, regional organizations, development actors, and all stakeholders if one is to achieve most development goals and the MDGs. Energy considerations should be appropriately integrated into socioeconomic programmes and into the planning, operation and maintenance of long -lived energy consuming infrastructures.

The world community reached specific agreements during the above-mentioned forums. In order to boost implementation and facilitate evaluation of progress achieved, the meetings adopted programmes of actions or implementation plans including targets, timetables and partnerships, and underlined the role of various partners at all levels (international, regional, sub-regional and countries level.)

From an African perspective, commitments, targets and goals made by the various actors can be clustered into the following four issue-based categories:

1) Improving energy accessibility for poverty reduction;

2) Changing energy consumption/production patterns for environment and resource sustainability;

3) Developing advanced and cleaner energy technologies and fuels; and

4) Cross-cutting energy measures, including measures on international finance, trade, capacity development, technology transfer, and gender issues.

The various actions and measures agreed at the above-mentioned forums are compiled in summarized in a scoping paper by UNDESA. A brief analysis shows that they can be cross-organized in the following four clusters of measures: technical; institutional/regulatory; policy; and capacity development measures. They are summarized in Table 1.

Most recommended and agreed actions pertain to institutional/regulatory and policy measures. Thus, per the number of recommended actions identified and agreed upon by the international community, it appears that policy and institutional actions are viewed as high priority and capacity building measures are also very important. Technical issues are important, though a fewer number of actions were proposed.

An overview of commitments and actions agreed during the above-mentioned forums reveals that most of them are related to crosscutting issues including regional trade, international cooperation, finance, international trade, and capacity development and training. Environment related issues such as changing consumption/production patterns, and the development of cleaner fuels and technologies rank second, while energy accessibility improvements, though very important, rank last because they are addressed indirectly by the preceding issues.

Table 1: Analysis of actions and commitments made during A21/PFIA21/CSD/WSSD

The WSSD/JPOI calls upon the international community to reinvigorate their commitment to address the special challenges facing Africa's efforts to achieve sustainable development and give effect to a new vision based on concrete actions for the implementation of Agenda 21, PFIA21 and WSSD in Africa. The Plan recognizes the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) as a pertinent instrument for achieving sustainable development on the continent.¹⁴

The JPOI states that achieving sustainable development will include actions at all levels to deal effectively with energy problems in Africa, including through initiatives to:

• Establish and promote programmes, partnerships and initiatives to support Africa's efforts to implement NEPAD objectives on energy, which seek to secure access for at least 35 per cent of Africa's population within 20 years, especially in rural areas.

• Provide support to implement other initiatives on energy, including the promotion of cleaner and more efficient energy use of natural gas and increased use of renewable energy, and to improve energy efficiency and access to advanced energy technologies, including cleaner fossil fuel technologies, particularly in rural and peri-urban areas.

NEPAD recognizes that energy plays a critical role in the development process; first, as a domestic necessity, but also as a factor of production whose cost directly affects prices of other goods and services, and the competitiveness of enterprises. NEPAD also recognizes that the search for abundant and cheap energy would focus on rationalizing the territorial distribution of existing, but unevenly allocated energy resources through regional energy cooperation and integration.

Recognizing that Africa's small market sizes and low purchasing power have been major barriers to universal access to modern energy services for development, NEPAD recognizes that the "business-as-usual" approach will not meet Africa's energy demand. Therefore, the strategy adopted to promote development of the African energy infrastructure aims at capitalizing on regional markets rather than country-specific coverage thereby generating the economies of scale necessary to lower transaction costs and increase competitiveness.

The NEPAD energy-related objectives are:

• To increase access to reliable and affordable commercial energy supply by Africa's population from 10 to 35 per cent or more in 20 years, especially in rural areas;

• To improve the reliability and lower the cost of energy supply to productive activities in order to enable economic growth of 6 per cent per annum;

• To rationalize the territorial distribution of existing and unevenly allocated energy resources;

• To strive to develop Africa's abundantly available solar energy resources;

• To reverse environmental degradation that is associated with the use of traditional biomass fuels in rural areas;

• To exploit and develop the hydropower potential of the river basins of Africa;

• To integrate transmission grids and gas pipelines so as to facilitate cross-border energy flows; and

• To reform and harmonize petroleum regulations and legislation in the continent.

NEPAD developed a Short Term Action Plan (STAP) for infrastructure development in the energy, water, transport and information and communications technology (ICT) sectors, with support from the African Development Bank (ADB), which was designated as the lead agency for NEPAD infrastructure planning and implementation. The Plan was reviewed by the Workshop of Regional Economic Communities (RECs) convened in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire in June 2002, and adopted by the first ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State of the African Union held in July 2002 in Durban, South Africa. The STAP is to be complemented by a more comprehensive Medium- and Long-term Action Programme, which is currently under preparation.

The STAP for energy infrastructure development initially comprised 23 projects categorized under the four following areas:

• Facilitation - establishment of the policy, regulatory and institutional framework required to create a suitable environment for investment and efficient operations;

• Capacity building - initiatives to empower the implementing institutions in order for them to perform their mandates;

• Investment - physical and capital investment projects; and

• Studies to prepare future priority projects.

The ADB carried out a review of all NEPAD infrastructure projects, in close consultation with the RECs¹⁵ and the NEPAD Secretariat, after one year of implementation, and came up with a list of "top twenty" priority projects.

The energy infrastructure development projects, which appear in the list include:

• One facilitation project: Sub-regional power pools (Southern and West Africa).

• Two studies:

• Great Inga Integrator Project; and

• Subregional power interconnections (East, Central and West Africa).

• One capacity building project: African Energy Commission (AFREC).

• Three investment projects:

• West African Gas Pipeline;

• Kenya-Uganda oil pipeline; and

• Mepande Uncua Hydropower Project.

The WSSD Plan of Implementation states "To promote effective implementation of Agenda 21 at the international level, actions to be undertaken should include, among other things, encouraging partnership initiatives for implementation by all relevant actors to support the outcome of the World Summit for Sustainable Development". During WSSD, the UN received some 32 partnership submissions for energy projects with substantial committed resources. These include:

• EU Energy $700 million partnership Initiative for Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development, with the European Commission, as a leading partner;

• Global Network on Energy for Sustainable Development (GNESD) led by UNEP;

• Global Village Energy Partnership (GVEP), with UNDP and the World Bank as leading partners;

• The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) led by the UK Government;

• Clean fuels and vehicles partnership with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), UNDESA and UNEP as leading partners;

• Indicators for Sustainable Energy Development (ISED) with IAEA as a leading partner;

• The South African energy utility (ESKOM) partnership to extend modern energy services to neighbouring countries; and

• The nine major electricity companies of the E7 agreements with the UN to facilitate technical cooperation for sustainable energy projects in developing countries.

Finally, it is worth recalling that the United States announced that it would invest up to $26 millions in energy projects in developing countries in 2003.

SECTION III

Review of Progress Achieved in the Implementation of the Energy Agenda

This section seeks to review actions undertaken by various actors to achieve the commitments, goals and targets agreed during the above-mentioned meetings, and assess the overall progress made mostly by sub-regional (e.g. Regional Economic Communities), regional (e.g. ADB, AU, NEPAD, etc.) and international institutions (e.g. UN organizations, IEPF and others) toward attaining the established objectives. It is worth mentioning that actions reviewed in this section do not intend to exhaustively represent all initiatives taken by every development actor in Africa. It focuses mainly on the compilation of the responses to surveys sent to the major actors. The present report does not assess progress made at national levels as such assessment will be reported to the CSD directly by countries.

As mentioned before analysis of actions agreed in A21, PFIA21, CSD and WSSD show that priority energy issues in Africa can be clustered in the following four main issues:

• Improve energy accessibility for poverty reduction;

• Changing consumption & production pattern of energy for environment and resource sustainability;

• Develop advanced and cleaner energy technologies and fuels; and

• Crosscutting energy measures, including on international, finance, trade, capacity development, technology transfer and gender issues.

These issues are in line with the NEPAD energy programme. However, this progress review report will also assess initiatives taken directly by NEPAD or implemented in support of the NEPAD, following the WSSD.

ISSUE 1: Improve energy accessibility for poverty reduction

• Priority for Africa:

Analysis of African population accessibility rate to modern energy reveals that this issue is of paramount importance to development on the continent, and must be given a first priority attention by all energy stakeholders. Current levels of access to modern energy services and resources fail to meet the needs of most Africans particularly the rural and urban poor population in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Much greater access to energy services and resources, including peri-urban and rural electricity as well as cleaner cooking fuels, is essential to achieving the MDGs, and create sustainable development. Numerous actors envisaged a large array of measures, which spans from increasing the supply energy, through various crosscutting measures, to improving the efficiency of its usage.

• Brief review of the commitments/actions implemented

Energy scale-up initiative

The UN-Habitat "energy scale-up initiative" aims to facilitate access to modern energy services for the urban poor while reducing the incidence of harmful indoor air pollution within informal settlements in sub-Saharan Africa. This to be achieved through policy change, development of regulatory instruments and pilot demonstrations. Specific project objectives include: Promotion of access to renewable energy technologies affordable for the urban poor; Increase in the number of households and businesses using energy-efficient cooking stoves and cooking places (i.e. smoke extracts); and Development of recommendations on policy implications of energy provision vis-à-vis environmental sustainability.

Productive use of rural/renewable energy

The UNIDO energy activities in Africa focus on fostering the development of efficient, cost effective and environmentally sound energy systems and providing access to energy for the poor. The main activities are centered on "packaging" rural energy programmes, that is combining components such as capacity building, technology transfer, training, financing, costing, increasing the income level of rural people , etc. UNIDO has been also developing a different energy service delivery model which looks beyond the energy aspects of the project. In conjunction with other partners (i.e. governments, NGOs, academia, etc.), UNIDO energy service delivery models evaluate a range of factors that link amongst other things, increased production, new types of production, and new social possibilities to the energy supplied by the project. The model is entitled "productive use of rural/renewable Energy". It involves supplying energy and capacity building for production of energy.

Capacity development and investment in mini-hydro power system

The francophone institute for environment (IEPF) has implemented pilot projects for the promotion of micro/mini-hydro electric systems in Rwanda (Nyakabanda), Cameroon (Bapi, Figure 10) and Madagascar (Ambositra). UNEP/GEF in partnership with IEPF, ADB, UNIDO, UNEP and UNECA completed the feasibility study of a regional project for capacity development and increase investments in mini/micro hydropower in 11 sub-Saharan African countries¹⁶.

Figure 10: African village entrepreneur building a 4kW pico-hydro turbine, based on Sri-Lanka Technology,
in Bapi village in Cameroon. Coutersy, IEPF project in Bapi.

Development of a regional rural electrification programme

The revised ECOWAS Treaty establishes that "the aims of the Community are to promote co-operation and integration, leading to the establishment of an economic union in West Africa in order to raise the living standards of its people, and to maintain and enhance economic stability, foster relationships among Member States and contribute to the progress and development of the African Continent". These objectives call for harmonization and co-ordination of national policies and the promotion of integration programmes, projects and activities in various fields, and in particular, in energy.

In order to comply with these objectives in the field of energy, ECOWAS is implementing a community energy programme, which includes the following major initiatives:

• West Africa Power Pool (WAPP);

• West Africa Gas Pipeline (WAGP);

• ECOWAS Energy Protocol;

• ECOWAS Energy Observatory;

• Regional Regulatory Body for the Electricity sector;

• Access to energy for rural and peri-urban populations in member countries.

Progress made

The implementation of the above-described commitments and actions contributed to progress in the following ways:

• Access to affordable and clean energy services for the urban poor largely residing within informal settlements has now become more recognized as an important human settlements agenda item among sub-Saharan African governments at local and national levels. As a result, country-to-country and city-to-city dialogue and cooperation are beginning to take place in this area.

• Funds were mobilized to implement various UNIDO activities including:

• Capacity-building for identification and removal of barriers for the rational use of energy in Small and Medium Scale (SME) Enterprises in Ethiopia,

• Capacity-building for growth and competition of SME in Ghana;

• Hydro-energy capacity building and assessment in Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania;

• Programme on rural energy productive use in several countries in West Africa;

• Renewable energy development programmes in Zambia;

• Reinforcement of national and regional capacity to implement the "Multipurpose Platform" in Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, and Guinea.

• About one hundred pilot sites for potential micro/mini hydropower plants were identified and analyzed for technical, environmental and economic feasibility, in the 11 selected countries. The regional mini/micro hydropower project has mobilized $1million of funding from UNDP/GEF at its preparatory phase. In addition, important funding commitments were made by ADB and the countries involved. The project concluded its pre-feasibility phase in mid-2005. The full active phase is to be launched by the end of 2005. The project is to be extended to 10 more countries in a subsequent phase.

• IEPF activities in the context of improving energy access also include the implementation of several pilot projects in photovoltaic, wind and biogas in Burkina Faso, Tunisia, and Guinea respectively.

• The ECOWAS Heads of State and Government adopted in Accra, in December 2003, the European Initiative on Energy for Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development, and voted Decision A/DEC.3/12/03 on the regional rural electrification programme.

• The ECOWAS Executive Secretariat, supported by UNDP, France and the EU decided to start the process of drafting a White Paper intended to support the definition of a regional policy for access to energy services in rural and peri-urban areas of its member States focusing on meeting the MDGs. As part of the process of developing and finalizing the White Paper, a regional forum was organized in Bamako, on 16 to 19 May 2005, which brought together major institutional stakeholders to define the components of a regional policy for access to energy services for rural and peri-urban zones to meet the MDGs.

ISSUE 2: Changing consumption/production patterns of energy for environment and resource sustainability

Priority for Africa

Energy and development experts recognized that the current production and consumption patterns of energy are not sustainable. More emphasis must be put on improving the energy production resource mix, through increased use of RE sources such as photovoltaic, wind, geothermal and hydro; promoting energy efficiency and conservation practices; and increasing the use of cleaner fuels, such as biofuels.

Clean air and an efficient transport system are essential to sustaining urban development, but urban transport's heavy dependence on fossil fuels causes high pollution, particularly in Africa, due to the age, quality and condition of its rolling stock. Emissions from transport vehicles contribute as much as 70% of air pollution. The larger the city, the larger its percentage contribution to the problem. Cars, trucks, motorcycles, scooters, buses and other public transport vehicles (both in the formal and informal sectors) emit significant quantities of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and fine particulate matter. Where leaded gasoline is used (as it is in most of Africa except in South Africa, Cote d'Ivoire, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana and Mozambique), vehicles remain a significant source of lead in urban air with its attendant health effects.

• A review of the commitments/actions implemented

Sustainable Transport Action Network for Africa (SUSTRAN-Africa)

This UN-Habitat project established a regional mechanism that promotes the adoption of suitable sustainable transport options (Non Motorized Transport (NMT); Transport Demand Management (TDM); Bus Rapid Transit (BRT); and, Land Use Planning (LUP), which have proven successful in Asia and Latin America and in African urban centers. It is a regional networking initiative, maintained and housed by an existing local organization in collaboration with other local and regional institutions which have expertise and interest in sustainable transport. The initiative involves the identification of African urban centers which are ready to implement sustainable transport initiatives, giving priority to projects in Senegal, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.

Wood Energy Information System (WEIS)

One of the major priorities of the FAO Wood Energy Program is to improve wood energy statistics and information (Wood Energy Information System (WEIS) as a major tool for the promotion of sustainable wood energy systems. It aims to generate and disseminate information created from wood energy activities and assist countries to develop their wood energy planning and policy capabilities. It consists of several components:

o Unified Wood Energy Terminology (UWET) with standardized terms, definitions and conversion factors commonly used for the collation and presentation of woodfuel statistics;

o Wood Energy Data Base (WEDB) with national annual production, trade and consumption of woodfuels. The database contains over 115,000 records from more than 200 countries;

o Guide for woodfuel surveys;

o Set of wood energy planning tools called WISDOM (Woodfuel Integrated Supply/Demand Overview Mapping); and

o Website and newsletter (Forest Energy Forum) for the dissemination of information.

In addition, FAO assist countries to enhance national capabilities of forestry services and energy agencies for wood energy planning and policy development.

Improving Energy Efficiency (EE) in small industries and developing EE and Energy Service Companies (ESCO)

UNIDO EE effort has focused on:

• Support programmes on environmentally-sustainable industrial development strategies and technologies, including transfer of environmentally-sound technologies within high priority industrial sectors; and

• Carrying out activities aimed at improved energy efficiencies and industries and cleaner production.

UNIDO's traditional industrial plant level-based approach involves reducing a plant's industrial energy consumption in a variety of ways, including lower energy consumption method of production; and processing or initiating product changes linked with the lower process energy inputs.

UNEP energy efficiency activities are mainly aimed at reducing the emission of greenhouse gases by identifying and carrying out Energy Efficiency (EE) improvements as an integral part of Cleaner Production (CP) assessments in industrial enterprises. It also provided support for energy efficiency efforts through the promotion of the establishment of specialised Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) that provide Monitoring and Targeting (M&T) energy services to industrial and commercial clients. The energy efficiency activities in Africa have been promoted through National Cleaner Production Centres that are jointly supported by UNEP and UNIDO.

IEPF initiated and supported several activities in energy efficiency, mainly at country level, including:

• The development of ESCOs in Cote d'Ivoire, with funding from the World Bank and the GEF. As a result, two ESCOs are operational and financially sustainable. This initiative has been approved by the GEF for replication in Mali, Benin, Senegal, and Mauritania.

• The Energy-City programme in Burkina Faso which helps city organizations to achieve energy savings, through auditing and other saving measures.

Development of renewable energy

UNEP's renewable energy activities focus on the needs of developing and transition economies in various facets of renewable energy technology research, development, and commercialization. The following are the key activities implemented:

The African Rural Energy Enterprise Development Initiatives (AREED): AREED seeks to develop new sustainable energy enterprises that use clean, efficient, and renewable energy technologies to meet the energy needs of under-served populations, thereby reducing the environmental and health consequences of existing energy use patterns. The AREED approach offers rural energy entrepreneurs a combination of enterprise development services and start-up financing. This integrated financial and technical support allows entrepreneurs to plan and structure their companies in a manner that prepares them for growth and to appear less risky to mainstream financial partners willing to invest in them¹⁷.

Mediterranean Renewable Energy Programme (MEDREP): The key objectives of MEDREP Finance are to investigate different approaches to financing renewable energy companies and projects in target countries, and to structure various support mechanisms that help lenders and investors scale up financing in the clean energy sector. Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt are the first three Mediterranean countries to be reviewed for the programme.

Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment (SWERA): SWERA seeks to bring sustainable energy approaches to developing countries through increased investment in renewable energy projects. The database and analytical tools developed through SWERA helps governments formulate realistic energy policies and programmes that are based on sound knowledge of available renewable Resources. African countries involved in the SWERA effort include Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya.

Removal of barriers to renewable energy technologies in Africa: This UNEP project focuses on identifying barriers to implementation of renewable energy technologies (RETs) in Egypt, Ghana and Zimbabwe and proposes measures to overcome them.

Progress made

The implementation of these commitments and actions contributed to progress in the foll