SPECIAL FEATURE
The battle of climate change will be won or lost in the Global South.
Shaimaa Al-Sheiby, OPEC Fund Senior Director for Strategic Planning and Economic Services
technology adaptation and innovation that encourages domestic supply chains, instead of import dependence. We cannot do this work alone, and we have no time to waste. RMI and the OPEC Fund can build on this evidence, and work together de-risking renewable
partnerships. With other partners in the Global South, like the United Nations Development Programme and the African Development Bank, RMI’s role in the US$650 million Africa Minigrids Program, which will provide electricity access to up to 21 countries representing around 300 million people, is a clear entry point for our collaboration.
leadership that allows developing countries to deal with energy insecurity thinking not only about costs, but also about the benefits of a net-zero world. RMI recent analysis identifies at least three benefits: job creation, just transition, joint innovation. Each US$1 million of spending creates up to eight full-time equivalent jobs in clean energy versus the three jobs created in fossil fuels. This net increase of five jobs associated with the energy transition is also supported by the latest International Energy Agency (IEA) report, underscoring that 14 million clean energy jobs will be needed by 2030, 60 percent of which will require training, to reach net zero by 2050. RMI’s Energy Transition Academy is directly addressing this challenge. Our Women in Renewable Energy (WIRE) network is leveraging the opportunity that the “just” part of the transition provides, as women’s current participation in renewables (32 percent) is higher than in oil and gas (21 percent). Its work in least developed countries and small island developing states shows the potential to bring those figures to parity with men. And we find that local innovation, for instance, in the manufacturing of solar energy components, supports
energy investment and mobilizing finance for just energy transition
FACTFILE: RAÚL ALFARO-PELICO Raúl Alfaro-Pelico is the senior director of RMI’s Energy Transition Academy within the Global South Program. He leads RMI’s capacity development efforts to secure a net zero future for all. He brings over 20 years of sustainability leadership at multilateral institutions, multinational organizations and multidisciplinary research and academia. He is a PhD researcher in Engineering from Lancaster University (United Kingdom) and holds an MSc in Economics from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.
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