The Turkish G20 Presidency chose energy as special theme for the work of the G20 Energy Sector Working Group (ESWG).The AfDB participated in the 3 ESWG meetings (Antalya, Istanbul and Izmir) in 2015 and contributed to the development of the G20 Energy Access Action Plan in Sub-Saharan Africa that was endorsed, together with the G20 Toolkit of Voluntary Options on Renewable Energy Deployment at the first G20 Energy Ministerial on the 2 October 2015 in Istanbul, preceded by a G20 Conference on Energy Access in Sub Saharan Africa on the first of October 2015, with the participation of AfDB president.
The plan is a voluntary collaboration framework underlining the commitment of the G20 to work together and coordinate activities to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all, in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 7. The energy access work of the G20 currently focuses on Sub-Saharan Africa and electricity, but might be extended in subsequent years to cover other regions and additional thematic areas, e.g. access to clean cooking solutions.
The Action Plan was developed in a collaborative effort under the leadership of the SEforALL Global Facilitation Team and with the active involvement of the AfDB in its capacity as host of the SEforALL Africa Hub.
The Action Plan identifies a series of actions for collaboration of G20 countries with Sub-Saharan African countries under six sections addressing key barriers:
(1) strengthening of policy and regulatory environments;
(2) technology development and deployment;
(3) investment and finance;
(4) capacity building;
(5) regional integration; and
(6) coordination and collaboration.
To be noted that the plan:
- In relation to policy and regulatory environment, it encourages G20 countries to support the African country-led processes to develop SEforALL Action Agendas as an umbrella framework for energy sector development at the nation level.
- Under technology development, the plan notes that G20 members could adopt to support the Africa-focused Green Mini-Grid Market Development Program, which the Bank has just launched financed through the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA)
- Under regional integration, the plan refers to the African Energy Leaders Group, PIDA and also stresses the importance of project preparation facilities with particular reference to the NEPAD IPPF hosted by the Bank.
- Finally, regarding coordination and collaboration, it notes to work with SEforALL and the African institutions-led SEforALL Africa Hub.
