Clean energy revolution: African youth leading change

A group of governments, philanthropic organisations, universities, corporates and community based networks have come together to organize an initiative towards sensitizing businesses and professionals to embrace clean energy and improve access of energy by the youth, for inclusive growth.

This will see professionals and business owners, mainly the youth, benefit physical and online learning on knowledge that also includes way to access financing, with a goal to reach 100 million Africans over the next decade.

They have organized the ‘Youth Energy Summit (YES!)’ which targets to align entrepreneurs, students and early career professionals with the corporate and development communities.

This month, YES will be held in Nairobi, where nearly 1,000 entrepreneurs, MSMEs, early career professionals, educators and students are planned to attend.

Clean energy access

The main organizations behind the initiative include EnergyNet, which facilitates energy investment in fast-growing economies and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) – an alliance of philanthropy, governments in emerging and developed economies, and technology, policy, and financing partners, with a mission to enable low and medium income countries (LMICs) shift to a clean energy, pro-growth model for inclusive economic growth.

“It has long been stated that Africa lacks bankable projects, so when we designed YES! we understood clearly from the MSMEs and entrepreneurs that the one thing which would have helped them succeed faster, would have been access to a network of advisors, investors and technology providers to help build out their business plans and access capital more efficiently,” Simon Gosling of EnergyNet said.

GEAPP aims to reduce 4 gigatons of future carbon emissions, expand clean energy access to one billion people, and enable 150 million new jobs.

On the other hand, EnergyNet, through the Africa Energy Forum are building a global network of industry-leading stakeholders, the majority of whom have initiatives designed to support and develop local communities. 

Empowering the youth

“Some of those initiatives remain largely underutilised due to the resources required to establish networks and engage people in those programmes. YES! will act as that convening hub to communicate with 100 million Africans over the next 10 years through a network of philanthropic organisations, mobile operators, universities, learning initiatives, community based networks and corporate partners,” EnergyNet said.

The organizations want to build an ‘all-of-sector’ alliance, where entrepreneurs and MSMEs will speed up the pace of energy access for millions more people across the continent, as well as promoting the expansion of established initiatives.

“It is no longer helpful to state that 600 million Africans lack access to energy as a statistic of relevance, without addressing the fact that this number is only getting larger as population growth continues its war against energy access,” Mr Gosling says.

The World Bank forecasts that a quarter of the world’s population will be living in Africa by 2050, half of whom will be below 25 years.

The organizations are turning the focus to the youth, by empowering them through increasing their access to energy.