Steering Committee meeting of the African Renewable Energy Alliance (AREA)

From 8 to 9 April 2011, the Steering Committee meeting of the AREA will be held at the ECREEE Secretariat in Praia, Cape Verde. The members will agree on joint activities to be implemented in the forthcoming months.

The forming of the Alliance was the result of a workshop that was jointly organized by the World Future Council (WFC), the Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE) and the Heinrich Böll Foundation under the patronage of Dr. Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, Director General of the Ethiopian Environmental Protection Authority and WFC Councillor.

For the inauguration of the Alliance the participants drafted a common declaration which states: “Now is the time to set the course towards a massive uptake of Renewable Energy for all people in urban and rural Africa. If we fail to immediately take decisions on Renewable Energy production and distribution in grid connected areas as well as in off grid regions, we undermine the right of millions of African citizens to develop a better life in the future. Renewable Energy means both, the production of electricity as well as thermal applications.” To frame common goals and objectives, the Alliance agreed on ten terms of reference for its future work ranging from fostering energy education and environmental information for all levels of society to finding ways of creating investment security. In this Alliance, utilities, industry, policy-makers and the civil society work together to boost the take-up of sustainable electrification and thermal power.

The AREA declaration can be found under the following link.  For further information please visit the website of the African Renewable Energy Alliance (AREA) and the World Future Council (WFC).