Energy must fight poverty – president Nandi-Ndaitwah

President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah says the clean energy transition must be about more than cutting emissions, adding that it should help eradicate poverty, create jobs and drive industrialisation.

Speaking at the United Nations Private Sector Forum in New York on Sunday Nandi-Ndaitwah said Namibia supports the Paris Agreement and the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.

However, she said the transition must recognise the circumstances of developing countries and protect their right to industrialise, eradicate poverty and achieve universal access to energy.

“For Namibia, this is not an abstract policy debate. Reliable and affordable energy determines whether a rural clinic can safely preserve medicines, whether a small enterprise can expand, whether a young person can find decent work at home,” she said.

She said the success of the transition should, therefore, not only be measured by megawatts of clean energy installed or emissions avoided, but by “jobs created, communities connected, skills transferred and industries established”.

Nandi-Ndaitwah said Africa should use its clean energy resources to manufacture goods, process minerals, strengthen food systems and modernise transport instead of simply exporting electricity or unprocessed resources.

“A transition that leaves communities without power, workers without viable alternatives or countries trapped at the bottom of global value chains will neither be durable nor fair,” said Nandi-Ndaitwah.

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