The stakeholders also said that policy and decision makers should prepare good policies and provide good budget to address the existing barriers and gaps to create enabling and conducive environment for sustainable energy investments.
The call was made at a meeting on sustainable energy and international climate related processes and agreement organized by Tanzania Traditional Energy Development Organisation (TaTEDO) in Dar es Salaam recently.
Executive Director for TaTEDO Estomiah Sawe advised that the government should be more committed and take leadership to ensure that issues related to sustainable energy, climate action, are mainstreamed, harmonized in the policies and implemented fruitfully especially at local level.
“I acknowledge government efforts and resources being put on these issues but we need to see more efforts by decision and policy makers and other practitioners. They should understand that issues of climate change, sustainable energy are key therefore, they should translate them into actual actions on the ground so that ordinary people can benefit from all these sustainable energy and climate action issues,” he said.
Executive Director for Catalyst for Social Action and Development Organization (CSADO) Msololo Onditi explained that for all the plans and strategies to work better the government should involve the people at the grassroots level.
He said that the local communities are key stakeholders to issues related to sustainable energy, climate change and other agreement. Therefore, their participation right from the planning stage is crucial.
“We need to recognize all the local and international processes and agreements. We also need to raise awareness among the local communities so that they can understand what is going on at national and international level and play active role in the implementation stage, he said.
Jensen Shuma from TaTEDO said that energy efficiency requires policy, strategy and on the ground actions.
“Renewable energy in the country energy mix is still low although there is development on biomass and solar energy systems but there is underdevelopment in geothermal, wind energy, tidal and waves,” he said.
Commenting on future energy requirement, he said the CSOs wish to see that the government is taking the lead and involving all stakeholders in the process of developing and implementation of the sustainable energy for all (SE4All) in order to bring universal access to modern energy services for all people in Tanzania.
He said all citizens of Tanzania both in rural and urban areas have rights to get access to sustainable modern energy services for their modern social services, such as telecommunication, lighting, TV, radio, faith, education and health. They also need energy for their business and productive activities such as production, processing and selling. The energy is also needed for security such as lights and alarms.
There is a need to support energy technological development, transfer and dissemination including developing decentralized systems for rural energy. Development Partners should commit more financial resources to scale up access to modern energy services for both grid and off-grid areas. Need for renewed political will and commitment for funding agencies including that of the rest of the international aid agencies, if the energy access poverty is to be addressed.
Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) is an international initiative for governments, the private sector and civil societies to drive further, faster action towards achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7). The SE4ALL will help mobilize achievement by 2030, the following outcomes namely universal energy access, doubling energy efficiency, and doubling the use of renewable energy in the global energy mix. It was formally launched as an initiative in September 2011 and is headquartered in Vienna, Austria. The initiative is both an opportunity and a challenge for Tanzania and Africa.
However, Mary Swai from TaTEDO said since Tanzania joined the SE4ALL initiative in 2012 it is now about eight years ago, yet minimal progress has been recorded on actual implementation of its action agenda and investment prospectus of 2015.
Currently, the population of Tanzania with access to or using modern cooking solutions is about 2 percent which is still very low. We are very unlikely to achieve the SE4ALL targets of more than 75 percent of population with access to clean cooking solutions by 2030 if no concerted efforts will be undertaken.
“Implementation of sustainable energy for all (SE4ALL) in Tanzania is hindered by a number of barriers and gaps most of them related to policy and regulatory frameworks, institutional matters, technical and business capacity, investment and financing, socio-economic issues, information and knowledge gap,” she said.
To accelerate implementation of SE4ALL in Tanzania, we call upon the policy and decision makers to address the existing barriers and gaps to ensure an enabling and conducive environment for sustainable energy investments.
Explaining about global warming of 1.5, IPCC Special Report 2018 and the current situation, Executive Director for ForumCC, Rebecca Muna explained that since pre-industrial times, human activities have caused approximately 1.0°C of global warming. Already the consequences for people, nature and livelihoods are conspicuously seen. At current rate, would reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052. Past emissions alone do not commit the world to 1.5°C
Climate change is already affecting people, ecosystems and livelihoods around the world. Limiting global warming to 1.5°C is not impossible – but it would require unprecedented transitions in all aspects of society. There are clear benefits to keeping warming to 1.5°C rather than 2°C or higher. Limiting warming to 1.5°C can go hand in hand with achieving other global goals.
Consequences of 1°C of global warming: extreme weather events, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice…among other changes. Difference between the effects of 1.5 ° C and 2 ° C warming is significant. Limiting global warming to 1.5 ° C would create greater chances: economies, ecosystems and societies to adapt and, remain below relevant risk thresholds making climate efforts difficult, and the risk of irreversible interference with the climate system increases.
