The United Nations Environment Programme and the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance organized a Regional Workshops for the successful implementation of Clean Captive Installations for Industrial Clients in Sub-Sahara Africa (CICSA). The Regional Workshops took place on the 28th June 2023 at the Maslow Times Square Hotel in Pretoria, South Africa.

Purpose of the Regional Workshop

  1. Discuss the opportunities, lessons learned, as well as challenges faced from the CICSA project implementation; share best practices to create awareness and disseminate project results.
  2. Explore opportunities for scale up and replication of good practices on clean captive power for the C&I market in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Highlights of the Regional Workshop

The architecture of the workshops composed of five (5) main sessions that included: (i) Welcome, opening remarks, and keynote speech (ii) Session on setting the scene and outlook of the renewable energy landscape in Africa followed by a plenary session with representatives of regional bodies, (iii) Presentations on the overall CICSA project; Presentation on lessons learnt from the implementation of the project in partner countries, followed by a plenary session with CICSA’s Steering Committee representatives, (iv) Roadmap for the development of a regional programme on Clean Captive Installations for Industrial Clients in Africa followed by a plenary session of experts and (v) the adoption of the Pretoria workshop statement.

The Regional Workshops brought together more than 50 participants from African countries and beyond, with representations from government institutions, industries, technology providers, private companies, manufacturers, financial institutions, and academia. Most notably, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in South Africa, the Department of Trade and Industry of the Republic of South Africa, the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Ghana, the Ministry of Energy & Petroleum of the Republic of Kenya, the UN Resident Coordinator in South Africa, the African Development Bank, IRENA, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), UNECA, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Africa Trade and Development Bank, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), South African Development Community (SADC) and the Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP), among others.

The Pretoria workshop statement is available here.

Outcome of the Regional Workshop

  • Lessons learnt and best practices from the completed CICSA pilot projects in the four partner countries (Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa) have been shared.
  • A Workshop statement that reflects a clear roadmap and pathway in the development of a regional programme on the viability of clean captive power for the commercial and industrial (C&I) market in African countries has been developed.