The UN Financial Fee for Africa is reviewing its non-public sector companions after studying of NJ Ayuk’s legal report
A UN company has cancelled an initiative to mobilise African non-public power investments — together with for fuel tasks — after Local weather Residence revealed that considered one of its coalition companions was led by a convicted fraudster and alleged cash launderer.
The UN Financial Fee for Africa (Uneca) has scrapped its flagship Crew Power Africa initiative after reviewing the involvement of the African Power Chamber, a commerce group headed by oil and fuel lobbyist NJ Ayuk.
In 2007, Cameroonian-born lawyer Ayuk pleaded responsible to fraud within the US after impersonating a congressman to acquire visas for fellow Cameroonians. In 2015, he was investigated by Ghana’s central financial institution on suspicion of laundering $2.5 million.
“After reviewing its relationship with a few of the non-public sector companions in Crew Power Africa, ECA has determined to cancel the initiative with fast impact,” the fee’s local weather director Jean-Paul Adam stated in a brief assertion on Thursday night,
He added that Uneca stays dedicated to working with the non-public sector to enhance power entry via renewables throughout the continent and that the fee will “assessment the most effective mechanism to permit this to occur”.
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Crew Power Africa, a coalition of African traders and establishments, was created earlier this yr to mobilise $500 billion of personal sector funding into 250GW of “clear” power throughout Africa by 2030.
The group was on account of launch a dashboard at Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, to showcase how African power investments are getting used. Whereas the main target was on deploying renewable power, it left area for some fuel investments. Gasoline tasks in Senegal had been going to be a part of the presentation.
‘Gasoline child fuel’
Ayuk had strongly argued that African international locations ought to pursue fuel extraction to spur Africa’s growth. He got here to the Cop27 local weather summit with the motto: “Gasoline child fuel.”
Uneca has defended a job for fuel to within the transition to scrub power in “very particular instances”.
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Africa is behind the curve on deploying wind and solar energy, whereas lots of of tens of millions of individuals haven’t any electrical energy. Solely 2% of world investments in renewable power within the final twenty years had been made on the continent, in line with the Worldwide Renewable Power Company.
One of many fiercest debates at Cop27 considerations whether or not fossil fuel is a part of the answer to power poverty, or a entice African leaders ought to keep away from.
For some creating international locations with current useful resource and infrastructure, fuel “will play a serious position of their transition to a internet zero future,” stated Uneca government secretary Antonio Pedro. “For all others, creating new fossil gasoline infrastructure would lead to billions of stranded belongings and debt for future generations.”
Ayuk has but to reply on to Local weather Residence’s request for remark. In an article printed on the African Power Chamber’s web site, Ayuk made unfounded private assaults on the messenger. He didn’t deal with his legal report or the cash laundering allegations.
