The minister of Energy and Mineral Development Ruth Nankabirwa has told a joint ministerial roundtable at COP27 that the energy transition process for the case of Africa should be facilitated rather than forced.
Nankabirwa was responding to calls from global players on Africa being a key player in energy transition.
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“We want the world to understand the challenges of economic development that Africa is facing. Even the cities that have developed, most of them started by using their natural resources. Our message to COP27 is that a transition cannot be forced, it can only be facilitated,” minister Nankabirwa told a joint ministerial roundtable at the Africa pavilion at COP27.
Nankabirwa stressed that there is need to finance the adoption of renewable energy.
“Countries that have discovered oil are excited to develop it, they expect to get money to invest int he clean energy. It requires heavy investment. Renewable energy is not cheap, of you are to do solar panels and store it so that you can use it at night, the tariff is so high,” Nankabirwa said.
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She said Uganda is targeting using her own natural resources from the country’s oil reserves, and that the money from oil is ring fenced for infrastructure development which includes construction of transmission lines and substations.
There have been calls from environmental activists with intention of exerting pressure on different stakeholders like Total E&P to pull out of Uganda’s oil exploration process. Nankabirwa warned that government won’t be stuck should anyone pull out.
“We won’t get stranded now that we have started. We will look for money from countries that understand and appreciate the challenges of Africa,” she said.
Shortly after the joint ministerial roundtable, Nankabirwa bumped into Pierre Larrounturou, a member of the European Union and a big critic of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline.
The two had a terse discussion with Nakabirwa telling off Larrounturou over the EU resolution that called for a halting of the EACOP.