Posted on January, 26, 2022 at 09:15 am
Climate solutions charity Ashden calls on climate trailblazers in Africa to apply for three international awards which will accelerate innovative climate solutions in the public, private and community sectors.
This year’s categories include: Energy Access Skills which will recognise the work of organisations training and upskilling workers to install clean energy systems; Energising Agriculture, which will seek out organisations doing exemplary work in decarbonising farming; and Energising Refugee Livelihoods which will award organisations creating economic opportunities for refugees through access to clean energy, or boosting skills and training in this area.
Entries close on 15 March 2022, with the winners announced in Oct.
Entry is free and winners will receive a grant of up to £25,000, while all finalists will enjoy publicity and networking opportunities – including connections to investors, funders and the media.
Entrants will be judged by expert panels on their ability to cut emissions, as well as their contribution to a fairer world. Award criteria will reward innovation that reduces inequality and transfers power to marginalised people.
Ashden CEO Harriet Lamb said: “This year Ashden will accelerate the frontline innovators delivering new green jobs and livelihoods or training people in low carbon projects. The Ashden Awards boost the most exciting innovators but also highlight the big changes needed to drive progress across society.
“African organisations are innovating to connect people, particularly in off-grid communities, ensuring people can have clean energy for their homes, to grow food or power their businesses. We look forward to an exciting range of applications this year as we know organisations and communities, from smallholder farmers to energy businesses, to refugee communities, are working at speed to counter the impacts of climate change and create fairer societies.
“New green jobs are a glittering prize in the transition to zero-carbon societies – a chance to put cash in people’s pockets while bringing economic opportunities to off-grid villages and heat-stressed towns in Africa and creating the new green jobs of the future. Indeed, everyone’s jobs will be affected by the huge environmental and economic changes down the line.”
About one billion people worldwide go without reliable electricity and three times that many cook on polluting stoves and fires. Investment in training is urgently needed to unlock universal access to clean, affordable energy, Ashden points out.
The task of widening energy access could create 4.5 million energy sector jobs worldwide by 2030 according to the International Renewable Energy Agency, with five as many jobs potentially created in communities receiving clean and modern energy for the first time.
Ninety per cent of people living in refugee camps worldwide have no regular access to electricity, and with 500 million smallholder farmers in the world, accessible, low-cost clean energy could transform millions of lives.
“We urge all climate innovators to look at the application criteria and see if their initiative could be boosted by an Ashden Award,” said Ms Lamb.
Applications are also open to climate pioneers from Asia and Latin America.
Three other Awards will be awarded to organisations in the UK on Energy Innovation, Skills in Low Carbon Sectors and Greening Work.
The Ashden Awards have run annually since 2001. Receiving an Ashden Award helps organisations expand their operations and impact.
Four of last year’s nine Ashden Award winners were from Africa including Solar Freeze in Kenya, winner of the Humanitarian Energy Access award, New Energy Nexus Uganda, winner of the Energy Access Innovation Award, Yice Uganda, winner of the Regenerative Agriculture Award, and Mbou Mon Tour, a community forest conservation project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, winner of the award for natural climate solutions.
Dysmus Kisilu, Founder of Solar Freeze in Kenya, said: “The Ashden Award we received last November has already had a tremendous impact on the work that we do at Solar Freeze. It put a spotlight on both the solution – which is access to refrigeration and cooling for the healthcare sector in the Humanitarian Energy space – and most importantly it made our beneficiaries be seen and recognised. People living in the remote Kakuma refugee camp are now part of the global story in providing climate smart solutions that will help make the world a better place.”
President Carlos Alvarado of Costa Rica, keynote speaker at the 2021 Ashden Awards at COP26 in Glasgow, said: “It is a great message that Ashden and the Award winners can provide. We need global solutions in terms of commitments, finance and targets because it’s true we need to keep the 1.5 degrees target. But in order to get that – implementation has to be done locally, respecting women, indigenous communities, working together with them, empowering them so solutions come from people, not the other way around… If we get to share that kind of message I think we will add even more hope to the world.”
Source: KBC