On 11th March 2022, Eng. Tarek el Molla, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources asserted on Egypt's supportive vision for the African continent in achieving a balanced and realistic transition in the energy domain, stated that President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi affirmed Egypt's commitment to giving the African continent and its vision for a just energy transition a top priority during the UN Climate Change Conference 2022 (COP 27), which Egypt will host next November in Sharm El-Sheikh. The President pointed out the importance of providing funding to African countries to help them confront climate change, in addition to stressing the right of African countries to exploit their natural gas and petroleum resources as part of a just transition, to be continue its efforts to achieve sustainable development.
This came during the Minister's participation in the activities of the "Africa Economy and Energy Forum", which was held during CERAWeek in Houston, USA with the participation of oil and energy Ministers from 11 African countries, namely: Egypt, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Moreover, the Forum was held with the participation of officials from the US Department of Energy, Heads of several international oil and energy companies operating in Africa, as well as Officials from a number of African and International funding institutions.
The participants in the Forum reviewed the challenges faced by African countries in the domain of energy transition, noting that Africa has low carbon emissions and contributes less to polluting the atmosphere. However, there are many challenges facing the economies of the countries of the continent related to low financing energy transition strategies. This makes it difficult to adhere to the timeframes that are determined according to global trends, especially since most of the financial support for the energy transition during the past years went to Asia.
In this context, Eng. Tarek El Molla highlighted the importance of coordination between all parties regarding the financing of Africa's energy transition, in accordance with the outcomes of COP 26.
El Molla during Africa Economy and Energy Forum -2