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Africa-Europe Energy Forum in Berlin

To win the fight against poverty in Africa, we must also eradicate energy poverty, said Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul at the Africa-Europe Energy Forum in Berlin on March 6, 2007. Access to energy in the developing countries – particularly in Africa – was, she said, a key requirement for achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals by the target date of 2015. "Without energy, there can be no sustainable development," she said.

Around half of all Africans live in absolute poverty and 70 per cent depend on traditional biomass as their sole source of energy. The African countries need help in satisfying their considerable energy needs so as to facilitate economic growth. The focus should be on promoting renewable energies so as to avoid, as far as possible, any negative impact on the climate and reduce the African economies' reliance on the expensive resource of oil.

The German government is currently providing a total of 386 million euros for energy projects in Africa. The Africa-Europe Energy Forum is an important step towards forging a partnership aimed at boosting energy security and fighting poverty and climate change. Minister Wieczorek-Zeul said that Germany would be using its twin presidencies of the EU and G8 to intensify support for a sustainable energy policy in Africa, adding that "a long-term energy partnership is in the interests of both Africa and Europe".

The energy partnership will be one of the key topics under discussion at the informal meeting of EU development ministers on 12 and 13 March at the Petersberg near Bonn.

Links

"Africa: Partnership on an equal footing" - Speech given by Federal Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the German Bundestag on March 2, 2007

Congratulatory Address delivered by Gernot Erler, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, at Ghana’s 50th Independence Anniversary Reception

Towards a Joint EU-Africa Strategy

March 6, 2007

Government & Politics