EASTERN AFRICA YOUTH CONFERENCE
ON ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE
OPENING ADDRESS BY HON. S.
MUHONGO, MINISTER FOR ENERGY AND MINERALS
TO THE
ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE POST
2015: YOUTH ENVISIONING TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AT JULIUS NYERERE
INTERNATIONAL CONVETION CENTRE –DAR ES SALAAM ON 07TH OCTOBER, 2013
Hon.
Alberic Kacou, UN Resident Coordinator,
Excellencies
Ambassadors & Government Leaders and Members of Diplomatic Corp.
Mr.
Jacob Mogendi- Coordinator General Eastern Africa Model UN 2013.
Mr.Shadrak
Msuya-Secretary General, Youth of United Nations Association of Tanzania,
Mr.Lwidiko
Mhamilawa –President General Assembly –East Africa Regional Model UN.
Representatives
from the Civil Society Organizations,
Distinguished
Participants,
Ladies
and Gentlemen,
It is a great
pleasure and honour for me to officiate the opening of Eastern Africa Youth
Conference on Energy and Climate Change.
Allow me to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to the
Government of Norway and United Nations Tanzania other development partners for
the support you have availed to the youth to organize this Conference. I
personally express my sincere gratitude to participants who have
come from outside Tanzania, youth from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi
and South Africa. The presence of you all here is a sign of
commitment and dedication to ensure Energy and Climate Change initiatives are
set to wards sustainable development inclusive of youth voice.
United Nations Agenda of sustainable development for energy and
environment is moved forward for the development of all. I
hope you will enjoy your stay in this sea-side city of Dar Es Salaam. As you may know already, Tanzania is endowed
with a great deal of tourism attractions.
Therefore, I would encourage you to stay on for a few days after the
conference so that you may visit some of the natural beauty of our country.
This gathering
as I am told is a result of several conferences of youth, called Model United
Nations General Assembly, whereas Youth of United Nations Association of
Tanzania has been conducting Regional Model UN in different regions of Tanzania
later Tanzania Model UN and now Eastern Africa Regional Model United Nations,
this shows how youth are devoted to ensure not only national development but
also international cooperation and integration.
To gather such
population is not easy task, number of youth leaders have been involved and so
build up even more , this demonstrate high level of commitments and exceptional
talents vested to them ,Mr. Coordinator General Congratulations with your team
for such a perfect work done.
Ladies
and Gentlemen,
Tanzania is
honoured to host this Eastern Africa regional conference because we share the
belief that without reliable energy, there cannot be sustainable development. It is based on this belief that Tanzania
recognizes the importance of energy in promoting national development and
economic growth. Tanzania is also
committed to ensuring that, there is significant improvement in the energy
sector performance. In order to achieve
this vision, priority is accorded to increasing access to modern energy
services by ensuring availability, reliability, quality, cost-effective,
efficiency and safety in an environment friendly manner. Also we know sub
Saharan Africa are mostly affected by climate change despite of little emission
as compared to Developed and most industrialized countries ,In order to control
the Climate change both adaptation, mitigation and cross cutting issues must be
implemented and the Kyoto protocol set emission standard be met by high
polluters. Youth voices be inclusive in the ongoing global discussions on
Climate Change and the coming COY and COP19,I wish to see the resolutions
reached on Climate Change issues after this conference are fully presented in
the COP 19 discussions, The coordinator General kindly set a way to present the
resolution with some of the conference participants to COP19 Warsaw Poland
coming November,2013.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Tanzania
enjoys a rich abundance of natural resources, including energy resources such
as natural gas, biomass, hydro, solar, wind, geothermal, coal, uranium. Total installed capacity Hydro 561MW, Thermal
877.24MW –from natural gas, heavy oils, and biomass.
Energy Resources potential for the case of Hydro is
about 4.7GW, Natural Gas 33Trilion cubic
feet (Tcf) proven reserves and Coal reserves about 1,200 million tones, Wind
speed up to 9.5m/s and geothermal more than 650MW.
With the exception of biomass that is unsustainably
exploited, the level of exploitation of other resources is quite insignificant
compared to the proven potential. Resources like wind, geothermal, uranium and
wave energy are yet to be fully assessed. Although Tanzania is endowed with
enormous energy resources, access to modern energy services is still very low
or non-existent in most rural areas. About 18.4% of the population has access
to reliable electricity supply, of which only 6.6% is available to rural
population however, the Tanzania Power System Master Plan, (2010 – 2035) anticipates increase in electrification
from the curent 18.4% to at least 75% by 2035.
Multiple
opportunities and challenges face the energy sector that will be required to
maximize the benefits and reduce the costs of energy services for households, livelihoods,
mobility, public institutions, commercial, industrial and productive activities. The opportunities include:
i.
Growing of electricity demand between
10 to 15 % per year. This requires more investments in power sector to be consistent
with the Power System Master Plan to
meet the rising demand.
ii.
Need to expand the transmission
network and interconnect with neighbouring countries in order to provide for
energy trading and improve the reliability of supply.
iii.
Need to expand the distribution
network.
iv.
Increased investment opportunities in
exploration for oil and gas;
v.
Development of natural gas
transmission network to reach the main markets;
vi.
Development of coal resources;
vii.
Development of geothermal energy
sources for power generation;
viii.
Development of wind power schemes for
the generation of power and other uses.
ix.
Development of petrochemical
industries to meet the demand for chemical and fertilizers for agricultural.
On the other
hand Challenges include:
i.
Over dependence of traditional biomass;
ii.
Limited Infrastructure that doesn’t
cope with the increased demand for gas;
iii.
Over dependence of imported fuel from abroad
and the price volatility;
iv.
Lack of adequate financial resources
to implement priority projects in the energy sector;
v.
Limited resources that can run the
sector efficiently and sustainably;
vi.
Low level of access to modern energy
services (esp. electricity in the rural areas)
vii.
Poverty – low purchasing power for the
majority of population
viii.
Inefficiency in energy transportation
and end use.
Despite all
this, Tanzania shares challenges of increasing modern energy access and similar
policy implementation shortfalls with most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
However, the country has some unique opportunities related to its abundant
resources and co-existent underdevelopment, which can be turned into
opportunities in pursuit of its modern energy access targets.
Ladies
and Gentlemen
In its energy
future, Tanzania has an opportunity to exchange lessons within the region on issues
in which opportunities and challenges cut across Energy sector and Climate
Change and full involvement of youth in energy programs and Climate Change discussions
and actions.
The government
aims at strengthening the following;
- Human
skills and Institutional capacity: To achieve a transformation of the
energy economy to broad affordable access to energy services will require
good policy, human skills and effective institutions built around
effective policy delivery.
2.
Energy Governance: A key current and
future issue of energy governance in Tanzania, central to sustainability is how
to balance cost recovery with equity (access and affordability). In addition,
the energy policy and independent regulatory instruments and robust and
effective systems are needed for modern energy access; efficiency of delivering
useful energy services, biomass energy value chains. As we speak the government
has come up with Biomass Strategy Draft which is going to be useful in the
biomass sector.
3.
Technology leapfrogging in delivering
access: much of Africa is not locked into technologies for access to energy
services for domestic, livelihoods and productive uses. Opportunities exist for
new technologies that are low-carbon, efficient and right-sized. A question
remain on how can climate, investment and other resources chasing energy access
promote adequate, clean, affordable and efficient services be mobilized as a
key input to a technological leapfrog the Tanzanian and African economic
development agenda.
4.
Behavioural attributes of
beneficiaries of modern energy access: No doubt that the poor people manage
their energy services efficiently within the constraints of the fuels and
appliances they have access to. This is common around the world where wasteful
practices are the norm and good energy management is not. With energy efficiency being related to both
technologies and behaviour, the Tanzanian energy access plan, if planned and
executed well, could harness the indigenous behavioural attributes of the poor.
In the above
context, Tanzania hopes that this youth regional conferences and the global
meeting that might follow as follow up activities will have tremendous input to
the climate change issues and energy sector.
Let me call
upon all participants to use this meeting to share your views and experiences
from current initiatives, programmes and projects on energy and Climate Change
and bring out examples of success and suggestions for improvement.
I would like
to conclude my speech by extending my sincere appreciation to the Government of
Norway for the generous support to this youth conference; your contribution and
commitment to the Sustainable Energy for ALL is highly appreciated. I will also
like to register my appreciation to the close cooperation with the UN and
specifically with UNDP on various energy programmes. I believe UNIC in particular for the support
that they offered to the youth.
Last but not least allow me to register our profound appreciation to our
Youth Team from all the regions through country coordinators and under the
coordination of Coordinator General, also Youth of United Nations Association
of Tanzania for continuing representation and involvement of youth through its
programs.
With these few
remarks, it is now my pleasure and privilege to declare this Eastern Africa
Youth regional Conference (Eastern Africa Regional Model United Nations) officially opened.
I wish you
fruitful deliberations.
Thank you for your Attention.
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