Nigeria has committed to electrify 25 million people across five million homes by 2023 using solar technologies and creating 250,000 jobs.
Similarly, the West African nation will give 30 million homes access to clean cooking and energising agriculture, textile production, cold storage etc. using gas as a transition fuel.
These formed the highlights of the country’s commitments made in New York on Friday, September 24, 2021, at the UN energy summit.
With pledges also made by Denmark, Germany, India, Malawi, Latin America and the Caribbean countries, Sierra Leone, United States, and United Arab Emirates, new multi-billion-dollar commitments to increase renewables and access to electricity and clean cooking technologies were announced at the summit, aimed at boosting efforts to reduce the ranks of nearly 800 million people living in energy poverty while setting the world on a trajectory towards net-zero-emissions by 2050.
More than $400 billion in new finance and investment was committed by governments and the private sector during the UN High-level Dialogue on Energy, the first leader-level meeting on energy under the auspices of the UN General Assembly in 40 years.
Over 35 countries — ranging from Small Island Developing States to major emerging and industrialised economies — made significant new energy commitments in the form of Energy Compacts. Additionally, several new partnership initiatives were announced, aiming to provide and improve access to reliable electricity to over a billion people.
The new commitments would result in large increases in the installed capacity of renewable energy and significant improvements in energy efficiency around the world — leading to hundreds of new renewable energy facilities and the creation of millions of new green jobs.
The energy summit took place as world leaders grapple with the critical urgency to keep the 1.5 degrees temperature target of the Paris Agreement within reach, and cut emissions by 45% by 2030, while closing the energy access gap and providing more than one billion people who currently rely on harmful fuels with clean cooking solutions. The new commitments showcase the bold actions needed to meet the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7).
