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20th General Conference
- Industrial Innovation Forum
- Driving a just hydrogen transition: Key enablers for clean hydrogen uptake and de-risking of investments
- Making gender equality a lived reality in industry
- Accelerating the green transition: Critical minerals, metals production and a fair future for all
- Industrialization in middle-income countries: A driving force for sustainable development
- Building resilient supply chains for the energy transition
- Industrial policy for a fair globalization: Insights from the Industrial Development Report 2024
- AIM Global: Inclusive AI – bridging the digital divide in industry and manufacturing
Overview
Promoting green industrialization and establishing sustainable value chains for low carbon technologies is pivotal in the effort to decarbonize the energy and transportation sectors, thus advancing towards the global net-zero target.
The importation of technologies like solar and storage batteries has surged over the last decade, yet supply chains for these technologies remain largely concentrated on a handful of countries. This dependency is particularly pronounced among lower-middle-income countries and will present a bottleneck for accelerating the energy transition. The participation of developing countries in global supply chains remains relatively limited. For instance in the solar industry, the International Solar Alliance (ISA) illustrates that solar manufacturing in the Global South remains limited and is primarily represented by South East Asia. Data from the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) also reveals analogous trends in other critical value chains, such as wind and battery manufacturing, with China and the U.S. leading the production capacities, followed by the EU, Japan, and South Korea.
The energy transition presents an opportunity for developing countries to drive green industrialization especially with the resource endowment across the African continent. Key minerals are essential in the production of clean energy technologies, yet many nations export them without value addition through processing and refining. Middle- and low-income countries can increase their domestic value addition by localizing mineral processing and refining. These countries can also leverage their labor cost advantage to significantly reduce the manufacturing expenses of clean energy technologies. However, achieving this requires a conducive policy and enabling environment including investments in workforce upskilling to enable the production of clean technology.
Discussion Points
- How does the increase in the projected demand for critical raw materials and clean energy technologies open opportunities for the global south to reduce imports through local manufacturing and contribute to secure resilient and sustainable global supply chains?
- What implications do policies of Global North countries have for the participation of the Global South?
- Which roles do governments have in supporting Global South countries to develop supply chains for clean energy technologie?
- How can international partnerships and technology collaboration support a diversification of supply chains?
- How can development cooperation effectively support sustainable and resilient supply chains for the energy transition?
Objective
The side event will discuss the interlinkage of energy policy and industrial policy to advance energy, climate and development goals. It will examine opportunities and solutions that may be promoted nationally, regionally and globally to advance green industrialization and support the diversification of supply chains for low carbon technologies.
It will discuss how the projected demand for critical raw materials and clean energy technologies open opportunities for the global south to reduce imports through increased local manufacturing and to contribute to secure resilient and sustainable global supply chains.
The session will also touch upon recommendations on how development cooperation can effectively support sustainable and resilient supply chains for the energy transition.
Related Documents
Speakers
Mr. Arunabha Ghosh, CEO, Council for Energy Environment and Water (CEEW)
Mr. Arunabha Ghosh is an internationally recognised public policy expert, author, columnist, and institution builder. He is the founder-CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, one of the world’s 20 best climate think-tanks. Arunabha advises governments, industry, civil society, and international organisations around the world. He currently serves on the Government of India’s G20 Finance Track Advisory Group and advises the Sherpa Track for India’s G20 Presidency in 2022-23. In 2022, the UN Secretary-General appointed him to the High-level Expert Group on the Credibility and Accountability of Net-Zero Announcements by Non-State Actors. Dr Ghosh is currently Vice-Chair of the UN Committee for Development Policy, and is a member of several international expert advisory groups: Global Commission on the Economics of Water; High-Level Group of Economists, constituted by the French president for the One Planet Lab; and the High-Level Consultative Group for the U.S. Department of State’s Energy Transition Accelerator. The Asia Society honoured him recently with the 2022 Asia Game Changer Award, for his and CEEW’s “incredible work, which is making a real difference for India and for the planet”.
Mr. Kenneth Lobo Méndez, Planning and Sustainability Department, Electricity Management, ICE, Costa Rica
Kenneth Lobo started his career in the same organization and has over 17 years of experience working at the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE). He primarily worked on projects related to the Electrical Interconnection System Project for Central American Countries (SIEPAC), coordinating the construction of ICE electrical transmission lines and managing pre-investment electricity generation projects. He is part of the board of directors of the regional operating entity of the regional electricity market (EOR) and currently serves as director of planning and sustainability at ICE. Mr. Kenneth Lobo holds degrees from the University of Costa Rica in Civil Engineering, the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain in Energy with a focus on Renewable Energies, and the Technological Institute of Costa Rica (ITCR) in Business Administration with a Finance emphasis. Furthermore, he possesses experience in initiatives related to energy, renewable energy, ecology, sustainability, and the markets for electricity, among other subjects.
Mr. Divyam Nagpal, Co-Lead of the Renewable Energy Manufacturing Initiative, Sustainable Energy for All
Divyam Nagpal is a Principal Specialist in Sustainable Energy for All’s UN-Energy Team leading on the policy and capacity building pillars of the Africa Renewable Energy Manufacturing Initiative (Africa REMI), as well as broader south-south collaboration activities including on critical minerals.
Ms. Rana Ghoneim, Chief and Officer in Charge, Division of Decarbonization and Sustainable Energy, UNIDO
Rana is the Chief and Officer in Charge of the Division of Decarbonization and Sustainable Energy at UNIDO where she oversees the organization's strategy and programmes in promoting a low carbon infrastructure powering industrialization and supporting the decarbonisation of industry in developing and emerging economies. She has a long standing experience of 20 years in designing and implementing programmes in the energy sector in Africa and the MENA region. She also coordinates the organization’s engagement and partnerships in global energy fora. She also leads on behalf of UNIDO global initiatives such as the Clean Energy Ministerial’s industrial deep Decarbonisation initiative (IDDI).
Mr. Leonardo Barreto-Gomez, Head of Center EU & International Affairs, Austrian Energy Agency (AEA)
Leonardo Barreto is head of center for EU and international projects of the Austrian Energy Agency (AEA). His areas of work are renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy policy and international cooperation. Mr. Barreto was also Lead Author in WGIII of the 5th IPCC Assessment Report. Before joining AEA in 2007, Mr. Barreto was head of the Energy Economics Group at Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland. From 2001 to 2004, he was research scholar in the energy program at IIASA. From 1997 to 2001 he was a research assistant at the Energy Economics Group of PSI. During 1996 he was assistant instructor in Electrical Engineering at the National University of Colombia and from 1993 to 1995 he worked for the Energy and Mines Planning Unit (UPME) of the Colombian Energy Ministry. Mr. Barreto holds BSc and MSc degrees in electrical engineering from the National University of Colombia and a PhD in technical sciences from the ETH Zürich.