Brussels, 22/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - At their eleventh Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) in Vienna, European and ACP parliamentarians (African, Caribbean and Pacific) adopted a resolution on 22 June summarising their debate over energy in ACP states. Noting that energy is essential for growth and development, the JPA is concerned that energy generating companies in ACP states have enough funding from multilateral funding bodies, development banks and the European Investment Bank to enable them to make the huge investment required to boost generating capacity and improve energy distribution.
The JPA asks the EU to help ACP states develop and implement energy strategies to enable them to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. ACP states have huge resources in terms of alternatives to fossil fuels, like hydroelectricity, but make very little use of their massive renewable energy potential, and the JPA asks them to pay greater attention to energy in their national economic development strategies. They are urged to avoid focussing solely on mega infrastructure projects but to focus also on universal access to energy - a massive undertaking.
Nirj Deva, European co-rapporteur (EPP-ED, UK), illustrated the scale of the problem by pointing out that ACP states today only account for 12% of global energy consumption, but with the forecasts of massive rises in demand from emerging economies like India and China, they face a gigantic energy provision problem, especially because the price of crude is still rising. Coal might be one solution but it has the disadvantage of CO2 emissions, said Deva. By 2025, he added, the ACPs will have to have access to sufficient energy to ensure their development. He explained that in sub-Saharan Africa, 48% of the urban population and 92% of the rural population have no access to electricity.