The AEEP Forum

The establishment of the Stakeholder Forum of the Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP) - including stakeholder from the private sector, civil society, academia as well as financial institutions - has long been an objective of the AEEP.  The Stakeholder Forum is a main driver of the expansion of the scope of the Partnership by facilitating dialogue amongst all its stakeholders in order to achieve progress on the AEEP 2020 Political Targets, in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency, energy access and energy security, by actively involving the European and African private sector, civil society, and research institutions in the partnership.

Through the participation of the stakeholder groups together with key political decision-makers, the Partnership Forum provides a platform to explore opportunities and potential synergies, including the implementation of "actions on the ground", and discussions on key issues of renewable energy solutions and knowledge & technology cooperation, as well as recommendations to political decision-makers. Thus, the Forum is taking the ministerial level commitments of the First High Level Meeting of the AEEP to the next level.

The First Stakeholder Forum took place on 9 and 10 May 2012 in Cape Town, South Africa and hosted more than 250 AEEP stakeholder participants from civil society, research and private sector, as well as policy makers, public officials and financial sector representatives.

The meeting placed a special focus on renewable energy in line with the Africa-EU Renewable Energy Cooperation Programme (RECP) launched in Vienna in 2010 which serves as a core instrument of joint action between now and 2020. In addition, the Forum provided the opportunity to discuss on the contribution of the AEEP towards Rio+20 and the UN Sustainable Energy for All initiative. 

The challenges of energy access and renewable energy deployment are high on the energy agenda in this UN Year for Sustainable Energy for All, thus intensifying the political momentum to achieve the ambitious goals set out in the framework of the AEEP in this field.