EU-Africa meeting to secure energy for Africa by 2020
(VIENNA) - African ministers and EU representatives kicked off a new energy partnership Tuesday, with the aim to secure renewable energy supplies for Africa by 2020.
"Today is the starting point for the Africa-EU cooperation programme on renewable energies," Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger, who hosted the Vienna meeting, said at the opening.
"Our goal is clear -- to provide by 2020 access to modern energy supplies for some 100 million people in Africa, to improve cross-border interconnectivity in the electricity supply and to improve energy efficiency," he said.
Energy ministers from some 20 African and Caribbean countries were attending this first high-level conference of the Africa-EU energy partnership, which was first agreed at the UN-sponsored climate change conference in Copenhagen last December.
The European commissioners for development, Andris Piebalgs, and for energy, Guenther Oettinger, and the African Union's energy commissioner Elham Ibrahim were also present.
"With this first ministerial meeting, we are sending a clear signal just days before the big UN summit on Millennium Goals in New York," noted Spindelegger.
"A reliable energy supply drives social development and economic growth and is a crucial factor in fighting poverty," he added.
Over 250 high-level participants were attending the Vienna meeting which runs until Wednesday, including several Austrian firms involved in renewable energy production.
"This conference should also serve as a contact point for them to enter Africa's promising energy market," Spindelegger said.