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G20 meeting in Cape Town places Africa’s energy security at forefront of global transition efforts

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G20 meeting in Cape Town places Africa’s energy security at forefront of global transition efforts

2025-05-03 21:58 Last Updated At:23:07

A key energy transition meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, highlighted Africa's energy security and future, alongside the global push to accelerate an equitable and affordable transition to renewable energy.

The G20 Energy Transition Working Group (ETWG) held its second meeting from April 30 to May 2, with South Africa, the host country, urging G20 nations to join forces to bolster energy security across the African continent and in developing nations.

These discussions come at a pivotal moment, as countries strive to balance decarbonization goals with the pressing energy needs, especially in Africa -- a continent rich in natural resources, yet still grappling with widespread poverty, where hundreds of millions live without electricity.

"It's important that we are able to manage this transition in a manner that takes into account our own domestic conditions. You need to balance that with the need to ensure that you don't stifle the ability of the economy to grow and get more and more people into employment, re-skill people, ensure that there's upward social economic ability of citizens of our respective countries," said Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, South African Electricity and Energy Minister.

South Africa also called for global cooperation to accelerate a fair and affordable transition to renewable energy at the meeting.

Africa relies heavily on fossil fuels, and the challenge of its transition lies in convincing wealthier nations to allocate necessary funding -- an issue that has already sparked debate among G20 members.

"The financing is important, of that infrastructure. Don't punish poor countries. Accept that the western and more developed countries have got an obligation to help poor countries. So that's really how we fashioned the conversation and I'm confident we're going to find each other," Ramokgopa said.

Fortunately, leading efforts are already underway. The European Union has pledged 4.4 billion euros (about 5 billion U.S. dollars) to South Africa's clean energy sector, with a focus on developing green hydrogen -- a key industry that could bring significant economic benefits.

China has also joined efforts, signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with South Africa to explore nuclear-powered small modular reactors (SMRs) -- a move expected to strengthen South Africa's energy capacity, address its declining energy security, and support its transition to a more reliable and sustainable energy system.

"The focus on SMR is important for us and the cooperation with China is critical. Of course China has gone on to exploit that technology and we want to sort of co-create with China and hence the MoU," said Subesh Pillay, interim director-general of the South African Electricity and Energy Ministry.

G20 meeting in Cape Town places Africa’s energy security at forefront of global transition efforts

G20 meeting in Cape Town places Africa’s energy security at forefront of global transition efforts

G20 meeting in Cape Town places Africa’s energy security at forefront of global transition efforts

G20 meeting in Cape Town places Africa’s energy security at forefront of global transition efforts

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London community mourns for victims of Air India plane crash

2025-06-14 21:09 Last Updated At:21:37

Members of Britain's Gujarati community gathered on Friday at a west London temple to remember the victims of Thursday's Air India plane crash which has claimed 279 lives so far.

With somber air in the local community, no one wanted to be interviewed but many people said they had known the passengers on board the doomed flight.

"I hope god will grant them space to look after themselves, and please look after the family who are left behind," said Sunjit Mehta, chairman of the community organization Brent Indian Association (BIA).

The BIA has opened a book of condolence, and the chairman is planning to visit the relatives of the local families as well as others needing support.

"It's quite daunting for the family members to have to wait around until the bodies are handed over to them," said Mehta.

Meanwhile, BIA's former chairman Rajnikant Patel lost both friends as well as family members. He has been remembering his brother and sister in law Ashok and Shobana Patel.

"He was very good, calm and helpful person. He has helped me a lot, not me alone, if I call him and tell him look so and so is in trouble, can you do something for him, he has helped a lot of people. It's not easy to explain or express the feeling of myself or of the family, but everyone feels very bad, saddened about the incident," he said.

Special prayers services have been organized for the coming days both at this temple and at other centers across Britain, so people can come together to remember the victims of the crash.

Community leaders say they hope it will help people deal with the aftermath of the tragedy the hard days ahead.

Air India's flight AI-171, a Boeing 787-8 aircraft, flying from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad to London, descended rapidly and crashed into a building on Thursday shortly after takeoff, killing 241 people on board with only one survivor.

London community mourns for victims of Air India plane crash

London community mourns for victims of Air India plane crash

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