The European Union (EU) has reiterated its commitment to supporting Namibia’s drive of renewable energy, saying it will continue to invest in skills development that are pertinent to achieving the objective of sustainable energy.
“Skills development is required to realise the Namibian aspirations of becoming a hub for renewable hydrogen in Africa. This is an area that nobody talked about when I started here, but now we are busy negotiating a Road Map for the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding on EU-Namibia Partnership on Sustainable Raw Materials Value Chains and Renewable Hydrogen,” EU ambassador to Namibia Sinikka Antila said.
The agreement was signed by President Hage Geingob and Ursula von den Leyen in November last year.
Antila stated that the partnership will support Namibia in using its mineral resources to underpin a sustainable, clean and inclusive economic growth and to add value locally to its raw materials.
“Similarly, renewable hydrogen can support the decarbonisation of industry, transport, power generation and buildings. We need to make this a reality, both in Europe and in Africa,” she said.
She then revealed the EU’s initiative of #TeamEurope, which focuses on inclusive green growth, by pooling resources together. This will be one of the EU flagships of its Global Gateway investments in Africa.
Antila made these revelations at the European Union Day held in Windhoek this week, where local companies involved in the Green Energy sector, consisting of youth, were invited.
She further highlighted that the EU needs to learn and acknowledge young people’s expectations, rights, and needs in everything they undertake. She said with reference to Namibia having hosted a visit of two EU Commissioners – Commissioner Urpilainen for International Partnerships and Commissioner Breton for Internal Market, in January this year.
“Under the leadership of Commissioner Urpilainen, we are now in the process of establishing an EU-Namibia Youth Sounding Board (YSB).
The YSB will create opportunities for young Namibian people of all backgrounds to express their views, to connect and to exchange. The YSB will contribute to make EU actions more participatory, relevant and effective for young people in Namibia.
“25 to 30 young people, selected across Namibia will advise the EU Delegation on youth participation and empowerment in our cooperation programmes with Namibia and in our shared priorities, including; employment and jobs creation, green and digital transition, human development and social inclusion, governance and gender, sports, culture and creative industries,” the Ambassador said adding an application process will be launched soon.
Other commitments she said, is the EU-Namibia Multi-Annual Indicative Programme which has an initial allocation of €37 million for the period until 2024, in addition to the Early Childhood Education and Inclusive Green Growth.
These projects are aimed at supporting governance, such as Civic Education before the forthcoming elections, transparency and anticorruption as well as Human Rights with special focus on action against Gender Based Violence.
Namibia is also benefitting from the EU’s regional programmes, such as the one on Strategic Corridors with support to Walvis Bay/Lüderitz-Maputo Corridor as well as the Integrated Conservation and Sustainable Use of the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME) for a Sustainable Blue Economy, to mention a few.
