About the partnership
The CCSE partnership supports renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives as well as cross-cutting issues related to climate change and sustainable energy such as human capital development, capacity-building, open data and open access. The partnership and roadmap were endorsed at the AU-EU Summit in 2017.
€84 million is being invested in climate services, renewable energy and energy efficiency to support climate adaptation and mitigation efforts in various sectors for Africa and implementation of the Paris Agreement. The partnership has 2 pillars
Pillar 1: adapting to and mitigating climate change. This involves generating and translating climate-related data and applying technological and system solutions that support information management and dissemination, as well as developing an integrated knowledge approach to climate action. It will be geared towards supporting countries in their efforts to implement the Paris Agreement and achieve its goals. Activities will be refined as the partnership evolves and new areas considered, in line with new and emerging priorities and innovations.
Pillar 2: renewable energy (including developing and integrating renewable energy in the energy system, planning and modelling sustainable energy systems, and strengthening basic research and technological development) and energy efficiency (increasing efficiency of production, promoting energy savings). With more than 16% of the world population in 2017, Africa accounts only for 5% of the world's global primary energy use. Furthermore 70 to 80% of used energy is generated from traditional biomass (wood fuel) in most AU countries. Africa has abundant energy resources -fossil and renewable energy. However, energy access remains the main issue. In sub-Saharan Africa, the average electrification rate is just 35%. In rural areas it is very low - below 20%.
Roadmap
The roadmap has 3 phases. They take into account the Paris Agreement objectives and the need to promote access to sustainable and affordable energy in line with the Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals
- establishing enabling environment/capacity/regulations
- conducting joint research in priority areas identified in the first phase
- commercialising and implementing research results
Working group
A working group was launched in July 2020 with the task to explore future avenues of cooperation notably on green/renewable hydrogen, circular economy, energy efficiency in buildings, climate-environment-health nexus and climate.
Sustainable energy activities: PRE-LEAP-RE | LEAP-RE | ABC 21
Climate change activities: CONFER | Down2Earth | FOCUS-Africa
Background
Energy features prominently in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which intends to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path. Of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, Goal 7 is dedicated to clean and affordable energy. A roadmap for a jointly funded AU-EU research and innovation partnership on climate change and sustainable energy (CCSE) was adopted at the 4th AU-EU HLPD Senior Officials' Meeting in Brussels in October 2017, alongside the partnership on food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture (FNSSA).