GOVERNMENT will intensify programmes to harness renewable energy to ensure that the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) 2030 target is met.
The SE4ALL is a United Nations (UN) initiative launched by the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2011 with the goal of achieving universal access to energy for all by 2030.
Of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), SDG seven (SDG7) focuses on ensuring that everyone in the world has access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy.
Its aim is to increase the proportion of renewable energy in the overall global energy mix as well as double the global rate of energy efficiency improvement.
Speaking at the Validation Workshop for the Action Agenda and Investment Prospectus, Deputy Minister for Energy and Power Development Tsitsi Muzenda said there was need for the country to exploit other sources of energy such as solar to alleviate energy problems.
Coal bed methane gas, she said, can be used to produce power and provide thermal energy for industry and households.
Other projects the Government has intensified in order to achieve sustainable energy for all include the rural electrification programme which has seen many rural communities benefitting through grid extension as well as installation of solar systems in Government institutions.
Currently, about 13 percent of rural households have access to electricity mainly accounted for by growth points, business centres, schools and clinics.
Access rate in urban areas stands at 83 percent of households.
The Deputy Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Retired Colonel Christian Katsande, said the implementation of the SE4ALL target will be done through the existing Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-ASSET) architecture and the 10-Point Plan enunciated by Government.
“It therefore follows that SDG7 will be implemented under the Infrastructure and Utilities Cluster under which energy, as an economic enabler, falls,” he said.
“Implementation of the 10 prioritised SDGs will trigger activity in the remaining seven, leading to the ultimate goal of eliminating poverty in all its forms everywhere.
“Government has recently established a National Steering Committee on Gas and Oil Industry Development in order to pursue a policy and legislative framework as well as pilot projects in the area of fuel from coal, electricity and chemicals industries, including fertilisers from gas.
“Coal bed methane can produce electricity cheaper than coal and can also be used as feedstock for the production of the hydrogen gas required in the manufacture of ammonia, a critical ingredient in the production of Ammonium Nitrate (AN) and urea.”
Dr Daniel-Alexander Schroth, the SE4ALL Africa Hub co-ordinator, said the energy agenda must be done through the efforts of all stakeholders.
“The validation of the Action Agenda and its subsequent political validation is only the beginning of the journey as the focus has to shift now decisively towards implementation and mobilisation of the required investments to turn it into reality, to improve living conditions, create economic opportunities and improve the lives of millions of Zimbabweans,” said Dr Schroth.
“The idea behind the SE4All Action Agenda is for the country to have a strategy-driven holistic document serving as an umbrella plan for national energy sector development and as a tool to ensure overall sector-wide coherence and synergy of the accumulated efforts towards SE4All’s goals.”
Energy, Dr Schroth said, is a priority of the African Development Bank.
“Energy is the number one priority out of the top-five for the bank, with the launch of a new deal on energy for Africa, further strengthening its leadership in this area,” he said.
“To support this aspiration, the bank has created a new vice-presidency complex on energy and has pledged to significantly increase its energy investments to US$12 billion for the 2016-20 period with a view to leverage another US$50 billion.”
The African Union (AU)’s Agenda 2063 has linkages with the SDGs in the area of environmentally sustainable and climate resilient economies, bio-diversity conservation and ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
Under the auspices of the AU, 19 African countries have endorsed the ‘African Clean Energy Corridor’, an initiative that could advance the development of renewable energy projects in the East and Southern African Power Pool from its current 12 percent to at least 40 percent by 2030.