The President of Tanzania suggests that creating power pools in East and Southern Africa can secure energy across the continent.
President of Tanzania, t he 53rd World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, emphasized Africa’s wealth in natural resources and its potential to contribute significantly in the worldwide shift to sustainable energy.
She urged for more private sector investment in Africa to harness the continent’s resources and develop sustainable energy solutions.
President of Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan, emphasized Africa’s wealth of natural resources, including cobalt, copper, and nickel, and the importance of utilizing these resources to provide energy to the continent and other countries.
She also stressed the need to create regional power pools in East and Southern Africa to ensure energy security across the continent.
“By sharing energy resources, countries can ensure that they have a reliable source of power even during shortages in one region,” she said.
Ilham Kadri, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee at Solvay, also spoke at the meeting, emphasizing the need for diversified supply chains of metals and rare earths, such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and copper.
These materials are essential components of EV batteries and other clean energy technologies, and it is essential to have multiple sources to avoid dependency on any one country.
Kadri also pointed out that China has built rare earths value chains for decades and to avoid a “Russian gas supply syndrome,” Europe and other countries must find diversified sources of these metals and minerals as well as localize battery assembly.
The World Economic Forum also discussed the importance of policies that support the energy transition. Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, highlighted the opportunity for Europe to cut bureaucratic red tape, which would unleash opportunities for innovation, new jobs and working together at a European scale, or else “real action will move to Asia and other parts of the world.”
He also acknowledged that Europe could have reduced its dependence on Russian gas sooner, but it was a collective failure, not just Germany’s.
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