The African Energy Commission (AFREC) in collaboration with the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) and the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) hosted a kick-off meeting with the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy (MIREME). In this virtual meeting, the initiative to establish a support center for Nationally Determined Contributions* (NDCs) was launched.
Pilot Project NDC Support center
Yagouba Traore, representative of Rashid Ali Abdallah, the executive director of AFREC, began by warmly welcoming the participants. This meeting marked a real milestone: the pilot project to establish the NDCs Support Center in Mozambique has officially started.
Yagouba: ““AFREC has established the first-ever continental datasets, namely the Africa Energy Information System (AEIS). It is a pioneering priority thematic area to begin implementing programs that pave the way to facilitate the continent’s energy transition starting from 2012. AFREC works closely with member states to collect, validate, and disseminate energy statistics to member states themselves and other regional and international stakeholders.”
Preparing and updating NDCs
Yagouba stated that all African countries are currently preparing and updating their NDCs. However, many countries face difficulties in the preparation process due to lack of energy statistics and modeling capabilities. This is why the initiative to establish an NDC Support Center was taken.
The main objective of the initiative is to establish an African Knowledge Center for NDC to enhance African countries’ ability to prepare and update their own NDC. This will continue to increase the maturity of African countries in energy statistics and modeling, energy efficiency indicators and greenhouse gas reporting. Based on the above, an ambitious reduction plan will be developed for 2030, to promote the diffusion of CO2 reducing technologies. Thereafter, efforts will be made to map their contribution to future NDCs.
Acknowledgement of cooperating parties
In his speech, Carlos Guerrero Lucendo (VITO) highlighted VITO’s mission to contribute to sustainable solutions to the global challenges of climate change, energy efficiency and transition. He expressed his gratitude for the trust of Flander’s International Climate Funding to support the implementation of this project in collaboration with AFREC, other local partners and African member states. He also extended his thanks to the Government of Mozambique for implementing the initiative and ensuring that the partnership with all parties will be strengthened for future further engagement.
Gilberto Mahumane of the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane stressed in his speech that he was honored to be part of this initiative and would provide the necessary technical and financial support to implement the project. He expressed his commitment to cooperate with all partners to ensure the project’s success. Teodoro Vales, Permanent Secretary of MIREME, also expressed his gratitude for the efforts of all partners to launch this project.
Lack of energy data and modeling capabilities
This initiative is a response to the many challenges faced by each AFREC member state in preparing its NDC. The reason is a lack of energy data and ability to model this information. Indeed, these energy data are key to producing useful energy data information with impact on policy development adapted to current realities in line with market dynamics.
The government of Mozambique has adopted the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) goals for universal energy access by 2030. This is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG7) and the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. In this context, several actions have been implemented, some of which are still ongoing. Examples include the universal energy program and the government’s five-year program to provide electricity to all administrative posts.
However, the unavailability of adequate energy data and the means to analyze and model it does not allow MIREME to fulfill its mandate in terms of conducting Planning with a view to better defining an NDC program for Mozambique. Vales does believe that the establishment of the NDC Support Center in Mozambique will enable MIREME to plan, manage, implement and monitor the Strategic Plans or Programs of the Government of Mozambique, with an impact on energy transition and environmental protection.
*The NDC Support Centre was established with the financial support from the Government of Flanders – Departement Omgeving (Belgium) through the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO). The NDC Support Center also benefits from technical support from CO2Logic, a carbon and environmental consultancy company, which is part of the implementing consortium together with AFREC and VITO.