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Nigeria elected member of IRENA council as UN urges improved energy investment

By Kingsley Jeremiah, Abuja
16 January 2023   |   4:03 am
Nigeria has been elected member of International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Council for the next two years.

Prof Eli Jidere Bala

Nigeria has been elected member of International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Council for the next two years.

The election held yesterday during the closing session of the 13th Assembly of the organisation.

Director General of Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), Prof. Eli Jidere Bala, who was present at the event, noted that apart from bringing Nigeria to the forefront of global discussion and decision-making in terms of cleaner energy, the development would afford the most populous black nation discuss finance and investment in renewable energy at a global level.

The 13th session, which brought together the 168 members, equally saw to the appointment of the incumbent Director-General, Francesco La Camera, for a second term of four years.

The IRENA members also agreed on the organisation’s Medium-Term Strategy (MTS) till 2027, a development, which would allow it focus on urgent actions, international cooperation and innovations.

“We must build a new energy system with the tools and systems of the future, not the past. Just as we innovate to improve technologies, we must innovate to reimagine international cooperation for the new energy era.

“A renewable-based transition is a vehicle for climate-proof energy systems, improved energy security, reduced inequality and long-overdue universal access. I am deeply humbled to have been appointed for a new term as Director-General,” he said.

I will continue to work tirelessly to realise IRENA’s new global mission,” La Camera said.

Meanwhile, the United Nations, earlier, asked countries across the world to triple energy transition investment to $4 trillion yearly despite the global energy crisis induced by COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine.

This comes as global energy leaders gathered yesterday at the 13th IRENA in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates to dialogue on options relating to checking climate change ahead of Conference of the Parties (COP 28) later this year.

To save the planet, nations, including Nigeria, have committed to net-zero goals but prevailing development, especially COVID19 and the Ukrainian war, have thrown global projections off balance with serious energy and supply chain disruption.

The resolution for IRENA members hinted on short-term actions would accelerate energy transition in the coming years and leverage the 1.5 degree Celsius pathway to 2050.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the projected 2.8 degrees Celsius global warming by the end of the century remains disastrous, adding that there was need to remove intellectual property barriers and treat key renewable technologies, including energy storage, as global public goods.

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