The World Economic Forum (WEF) and the World Energy Council (WEC) signed an agreement on Wednesday to cooperate on reducing energy poverty in Africa.
"The overall objective of the agreement is to pool resources from the two institutions to promote a sustainable supply and use of energy in areas with little or no access to electricity," said a WEF statement.
As part of the agreement, the two institutions will jointly work on the Energy Poverty Action (EPA) project.
EPA is a private sector initiative which delivers business expertise and best practices to reduce energy poverty by developing innovative, scalable and replicable electrification projects.
The project was initiated at the WEF Annual Meeting 2005. One key concept is empowerment of local user groups to take charge of, and responsibility for, the management of local energy systems.
"The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) can only be achieved if people have basic access to energy," said Christoph Frei, WEF head of energy industries.
"Partnering with the World Energy Council further strengthens the brand and visibility of EPA. This is important to get the right attention of many more potential donors and financiers," Frei said.
Based in London, the WEC is the foremost multi-energy organization in the world today. It is a non-profit NGO, U.N.-accredited and has Member Committees in over 90 countries, including most of the largest energy producing and energy consuming countries.
The WEF is an Geneva-based independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.
Source: Xinhua
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