Government urged to invest in renewable energy

Mrs Kate Quartey-Papafio, Chairperson, Electricals and Electronics, Association of Ghana Industries has called on government to invest in renewable energy to expand energy access and enhance efficiency.

Mrs Quartey-Papafio said investing in renewable energy resources would help accelerate the transition to an affordable, reliable and sustainable energy system to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seven on energy.

Goal seven of the SDGs aimed to correct this enormous imbalance by ensuring everyone has access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy for all by 2030.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra, she said effective investment in renewable energy, would help businesses to innovate and pioneer new technologies that change the status quo of the country’s energy system, and become the centre of climate change solutions.

Mrs Quartey-Papafio, who is also an Entrepreneur, said investment in renewable energy could help reduce air pollution, cut global warming emissions, create new jobs and industries, diversify power supply and decrease dependence on fossil fuels.

She appealed to government to give tax exemptions on some of the components of solar such as the removal of import duties on the panels.

This, she explained, would enable the private businesses to expand production and create employment opportunities for the citizenry.

Touching on private sector preparedness to support government achieve goal seven, Mrs Quartey-Papafio re- affirmed the private sector commitment to support government to achieve the SDG on energy.

Ensuring access to affordable, reliable and modern energy globally is improving due to recent progress in electrification and developments in industrial energy efficiency.

Information from UN shows that from 2000 to 2016, the proportion of the global population with access to electricity increased from 78 per cent to 87 per cent, with the absolute number of people living without electricity dipping to just below one billion.

In 2016, three billion people, that is 41 per cent of the world’s population were still cooking with polluting fuel and stove combinations.

Global energy intensity decreased by 2.8 per cent from 2014 to 2015, double the rate of improvement seen between 1990 and 2010.

Mrs Quartey-Papafio said modern society depended on reliable and affordable energy services to function smoothly and to develop equitably, adding that a well-established energy system would support all sectors of the economy for sustained development.

She urged women to venture into the business of power, since there were few in the sector to advance the frontier of holistic development.