Africa’s Climate Solutions Champions Honored In London Awards

By Jean Pierre Afadhali

Ahead of Cop 28, United Nations Conference on Climate Change, Africa’s low carbon innovators are being celebrated in London this week, following their success at the 2023 Ashden Awards (awards that boost outstanding climate solutions) on Tuesday 14 November. Four of the night’s five Global South winners were from or working in the continent.

One of African winners received the Ashden Award for Outstanding Achievement.

This week winners will meet investors, policy makers and other climate innovators from around the world in the UK capital, making connections that help them to share and accelerate their climate innovations, stated Ashden in a new release seen by Pan African Visions

Dr Ashok Sinha, CEO of UK climate solutions charity Ashden, highlighted the financial barriers faced by climate innovators as he opened Tuesday’s ceremony at London’s Royal Geographical Society.

He was quoted as saying: “Internationally we are failing to deliver the $100 billion per annum minimum that we owe and have long promised to the Global South.”

“So thank goodness for the innovators like these Ashden Award winners. They are not waiting for government action; they are not waiting for an international agreement. They are forging ahead, powering up refugee camps, connecting business to clean energy, regenerating rainforests, employing people, improving people’s lives and livelihoods.

“They are building a better world day by day, community by community. They are the true pioneers, heroes of the new green economy, and we are here today to pay tribute to everything they have achieved.”

Winners from Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Cameroon were celebrated for driving radical progress in tackling the biggest climate challenges – working in clean energy, natural climate solutions and agriculture.

The awards honoured work supporting marginalised communities, and those at greatest risk from the climate crisis.

Winners included USAFI Green Energy in north west Kenya, which brings affordable clean energy and jobs to people living in Kakuma refugee camp, as well as the local community.

Another winner was CERAF-Nord, which supports communities in north Cameroon to restore degraded land through agroforestry and bee-keeping.

According to the organization behind awards, the importance of boosting jobs and skills was a key criterion in the awards. In the Powering Futures in Clean Energy category, Burasolutions Solar Academy in Nigeria was celebrated for training women and marginalised people to join the clean energy workforce.

Buradum Geteh, Founder and CEO of Burasolutions said: “We train about 300 young people in the clean energy space, many of whom have secured employment in other organisations and those with entrepreneurial spirit have secured business for themselves.

“Now we have a goal of training about 3,000 persons over the next five years, so we need technical partnership, advanced training and financial investment to grow what we do. Because we believe every day we train someone with a green skill, it moves us a step forward to achieving a cleaner and greener future for us all.”

The Ashden Award for Integrated Energy Africa was won by Power for All, for its Utilities 2.0 Twaake project in Uganda. Husk Power Systems received the Outstanding Achievement Award for its work rapidly expanding community solar minigrids in Africa and Asia.

Krsitina Skierka, CEO of Power for All, said: “We can now run businesses from devices we hold in our hands, but nearly a billion people don’t have access to energy, and there’s really no excuse for it. It’s not a technology problem it’s a human problem, so if humans are part of the problem we can also be part of the solution.

“Utilities 2.0 has shown that by working together humans can significantly change the rate of access to energy. Together we found that by combining c1entralized and decentralized energy, that businesses like minigrids and rooftop solar can work together with traditional electrical systems to accelerate connections, drive demand and improve an energy system’s performance, which means new connections, new consumers, get to actually enjoy greater benefits of that energy and in fact have a chance to change the world.

“But we can’t effect systems change on our own. It’s never dependent on one product, one policy, one person. It really is about partnership.”

Husk Power Systems won the Ashden Award for Outstanding Achievement for its exemplary work and vision. Its ambitious Sunshot Initative aims to benefit 7.7million people across the continent within five years. Husk’s clean energy minigrids support businesses, schools and hospitals, replacing polluting diesel generators.

Collectives for Integrated Livelihoods Initiatives (Clnl) was a winner from India. Clnl helps women in India's Central Tribal Belt use clean energy to raise their incomes – and become leaders in their communities.