Kenya, South Africa and Rwanda have been chosen to host Climate innovation center being developed with financing from the World Bank and development partners for Africa.

The Climate Innovation center is going to assist private sector to take up innovative green or renewable energy activities that will then be converted to products like solar panels and others.

According to Alex Alusa, Climate Change consultant in the Office of the Prime Minister said at a recent climate change hearing for the Nyanza in Kisumu that the climate innovation center will also help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) produce these products in quantities and low cost and assist in the uptake of the products.

“This will help lessen the demand for traditional kerosene and wood-fuel use to solar or wind”.

The innovation center will address the need to give skill-sets to private sector with good ideas. “Many private sectors have good ideas but do not know how to grow them into marketable products thereby create jobs to locals”, he said.

He said this will bring skill-sets and expertise to help the private sector develop ideas on green energy and thereby lead to green economy growth so as to make the country become carbon-neutral.

The innovation center is however being delayed by the fact that a number of partners being eyed are yet to be brought on board but Alusa assured that the process may take off within the coming 12 months.

French Development Agency (AFD) and UK Department of Foreign International development ( DFID) will be involved in developing the innovation center which is to be based in Kenya, India, Brazil, South Africa and Rwanda.

The centers will be based in countries where they hope to get maximum effects The innovation center, said Alusa are brought about in attempt to reduce carbon footprint within countries and encourage private sector develop clean energy.

He said the idea for climate innovation center is good as Kenya needs capacity to develop among others low wattage bulbs and phase off the current bulbs.

“But this is a process that the locals ought to be walked through instead of blocking off their importation without offering the locals alternatives that benefit them”, said Alusa.

Meanwhile close to 80 percent of the world‘s energy supply could be met by renewables by mid-century if backed by the right enabling public policies a new report bythe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows.

The findings, launched today after being approved by member countries of the IPCC in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, are contained in a summary for policymakers of the Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN).

The report indicate that the rising penetration of renewable energies could lead to cumulative greenhouse gas savings equivalent to 220 to 560 Gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (GtC02eq) between 2010 and 2050. Youba Sokona, Co-Chair of the Working Group III, said: ―The potential role of renewable energy technologies in meeting the needs of the poor and in powering the sustainable growth of developing and developed economies can trigger sharply polarized views.

This IPCC report has brought some much needed clarity to this debate in order to inform governments on the options and decisions that will be needed if the world is to collectively realize a low carbon, far more resource efficient and equitable development path.

The upper end of the scenarios assessed, representing a cut of around a third in greenhouse gas emissions from business-as-usual projections, could assist in keeping concentrations of greenhouse gases at 450 parts per million.

This could contribute towards a goal of holding the increase in global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius – an aim recognized in the United Nations Climate Convention's Cancun Agreements.

Ramon Pichs, Co-Chair of the Working Group III, added: ―The report shows that it is not the availability of the resource, but the public policies that will either expand or constrain renewable energy development over the coming decades. Developing countries have an important stake in this future—this is where most of the 1.4 billion people without access to electricity live yet also where some of the best conditions exist for renewable energy deployment.

Public policies that recognize and reflect the wider economic, social and environmental benefits of renewable energies, including their potential to cut air pollution and improve public health, will be key for meeting the highest renewables deployment scenarios. Increasing the share of renewables requires additional short-term and long-term integration efforts. Studies clearly show that combining different variable renewable sources, and resources from larger geographical areas, will be beneficial in smoothing the variability and decreasing overall uncertainty for the power system.

There is a need for advanced technologies to optimize the infrastructure capacity for renewables. Additionally, there is a need for balancing supply and demand, like advanced demand and supply forecasting and plant scheduling.

Of the around 300 Gigawatts (GW) of new electricity generating capacity added globally between 2008 and 2009, 140 GW came from renewable energy. Despite global financial challenges, renewable energy capacity grew in 2009—wind by over 30 percent; hydropower by three percent; grid-connected photovoltaics by over 50 percent; geothermal by 4 percent; solar water/heating by over 20 percent and ethanol and biodiesel production rose by 10 percent and 9 percent respectively.

Developing countries host more than 50 percent of current global renewable energy capacity. Most of the reviewed scenarios estimate that renewables will contribute more to a low carbon energy supply by 2050 than nuclear power or fossil fuels using carbon capture and storage (CCS).

According to the four scenarios analyzed in detail, the decadal global investments in the renewable power sector range from 1,360 to 5,100 billion US dollars to 2020 and 1,490 to 7,180 billion US dollars for the decade 2021 to 2030.

For the lower values, the average yearly investments are smaller than the renewable power sector investments reported for 2009.

Africa Science News Service