UGANDA’S CLEAN ENERGY SECTOR OFFERS JOBS & CLIMATE SOLUTIONS
The Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP) 27 which took place in Egypt ended this week (Sunday November 20). During the COP, world leaders, civil society organisations (CSOs), climate change activists and other parties discussed how the world can tackle the climate change crisis.
Key to tackling this crisis is the promotion of clean energy, it was agreed by some parties. Prior to the COP, a number of African countries also argued that any attempts to tackle the climate change crisis, without addressing economic poverty, energy poverty and lack of jobs in Africa, would likely fail. The African governments are right in seeking to address energy and economic poverty on the continent.
And, they can do this by promoting clean energy. How? In September 2022, Power for All alongside various partners including Uganda National Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Association (UNREEEA), produced a research report that is telling.
Titled Powering Jobs Census 2022: The Energy Access Workforce, the research evaluated the Decentralised Renewable Energy (DRE) labourforce in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, India and Nigeria.
The decentralised renewable energy technologies that were studied included small solar appliances of less than 10W that power a few bulbs or a phone charging station; and Solar Home Systems (SHS) of up to 100W that power basic appliances such as TVs and refrigerators.
Others included standalone or grid-tied systems that range from 100W to multiple kilowatts (kW); and mini-grid systems ranging from 1 kW up to 10 MW. The survey did not cover clean cooking technologies.
FOCUS ON UGANDA
The findings of the study were interesting. They demonstrated that the clean energy sector can contribute to addressing the twin crises of climate change and high unemployment rates.
What were the study findings in relation to Uganda? The study found the following:
The decentralised renewable energy sector in Uganda employs nearly 30,000 workers.
Of these, 80% are in the formal sector and 20% in the informal one.
The majority, nearly 50% of the labourforce in the sector, is skilled.
The pico-solar (small solar) and solar home system category employs the majority of Ugandans in the decentralised renewable energy sector.
The sector has demonstrated resilience in job creation despite the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, the sector fared better than traditional fossil fuel-based energy.
FIGURES
The figures below further share some of the study’s main findings.
CHALLENGES
While the decentralised renewable energy sector is an important employer, the sector faces challenges such as:
Coronavirus-induced lockdowns which reduced the growth of Uganda’s economy;
Insufficient funding with only 13% of the US$1.6 billion committed to the mini-grid global industry having been disbursed by June 2020;
Notably, investments in renewable energy in Africa are limited with only 2% of global investments that were made in renewable energy being made in Africa within the last two decades;
Uganda's complicated investment processes which include cumbersome licencing;
Cultural norms that inhibit women from working outside their respective homes; the study found that only 28% of the distributed renewable energies labourforce in Uganda is female;
Challenges in recruiting skilled workers; and
Big capital requirements which discourage new entrants.
The above challenges should be addressed to promote green jobs.
