Sierra Leone News: UNIDO Empowers Stakeholders on Development & Implementation of Renewable Energy Policy
By John Baimba Sesay (JoSemata)
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) on Wednesday successfully ended a two-day training on the “development and implementation of renewable energy policy in Sierra Leone” at Hotel Cabenda in Freetown.
The training which attracted high profile representatives from business outfits, environmental protection and management agencies, government, the energy and private sector “underpins sustainable development at enhancing the capacity and knowledge on how to forester regulatory and policy environments that will better aid the adoption of more economically and environmentally sustainable methods of renewable energy supply and utilization, particularly in rural areas of Sierra Leone”.
The workshop was done in concert with the Ministry of Energy and the Global Environment Facility.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Mrs. Mariatu Swaray, country Director for UNIDO, expressed delight for the fruitful collaboration with UNIDO’s partners in actualizing the training workshop mentioning that the “volatile oil prices, the growing energy demand and climate change issues are shaping the global energy agenda” presently. She underscored the importance of energy in the Sustainable Development Goals and said “UNIDO is a leading provider of services for improved industrial energy efficiency, enhanced use of renewable sources of energy and promotion of cleaner technologies”.
The Country Director said, “Renewable energy has a great potential to help countries become less dependent on energy imports, create jobs and mitigate climate change while contributing to prosperity.” She said UNIDO energy activities include promotion of renewable sources of energy, the facilitation of productive activities in rural areas and in industrial processes” pressing that UNIDO is supporting the development of green industry policies and provide capacity building and training seminars whilst at the same time they play leading role in the “Partnership for Action on Green Economy” (PAGE) which is joint response to the Rio+ Outcome by the five United Nations Agencies supporting and increasing number of countries in their transition to the green economy.
She emphasized that environmental issues must be addressed in order to facilitate an inclusive sustainable industrial development in developing countries. She added that the promotion of renewable energy markets and industry at a systematic level plays an integral role in addressing the challenges of energy poverty, energy security and climate change simultaneously. She underscored that the training hope to raise awareness and knowledge of energy regulatory and policy making bodies, their personnel enhanced, and thereby strengthening energy sector regulating and policymaking capacity in the country. She said that “strengthening the capacities on energy policies and relevant enabling frameworks is critical to drive the reform of the energy sector in line with the shifting needs of the energy transition.”
The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) Chairperson, Professor Foday Moriba Jaward spoke about the timeliness of the workshop and its relevance for the nation in promoting low carbon development to meet Sierra Leone’s obligation to the Paris Climate Agreement and meet the needs of the people in the provision of renewable energy generation facilities. He said the workshop is timely to discuss the existing gaps, challenges and priority policy action with sound recommendations and for effective implementation in the area of renewable energy technologies and energy efficiencies. He pointed that the “existing national renewable energy policy need to be reviewed and updated in response to international obligation and incentives”. He called on the participants to be aware that there is “need to consider more renewable energy options for power generation in Sierra Leone” affirming that “as a nation they seek to embark on low carbon national development trajectory that will address the existing challenges in energy provision and access to all by promoting the opportunities provided by renewable energy”.
He said, “Government has provided a platform that supported Public Private Partnership in renewable energy policy developed by the Ministry of Energy and this has led to a number of investment project.” EPA, he said, is doing its best to provide an enabling environment for renewable energy projects. The EPA boss revealed that “EPA in collaboration with UNOPS has drafted Environmental Social Health Impact Assessment (ESHIA) guidelines for renewable energy and mining grid projects that streamline the ESHIA application and renewal process.”
“ESHIA license can now be obtain in six weeks instead of the six-month period which has been the case and the aim is to reduce regulation and cost of acquiring and renewing environment permits for renewable energy and mini grid projects,” Professor Jawara said.
In attendance was the Lead Trainer and UNIDO’s International Consultant on Renewable Energy Policy, Ms. Nadejda (Nadya) Komendatova and Sudir Kumar Singh from UNIDO Vienna; and Dr. Kelleh Gbawuru Mansaray from UNIDO Sierra Leone Country Office.
