Podcasts

Back

Renewable Energies and Mediterranean Energy Cooperation

10
March 2015
Luigi Carafa

This podcast is performed by Luigi Carafa. This tele-briefing will focus on renewable energy cooperation in the Mediterranean, pointing out some lessons learned in the last five years as well as the challenges ahead at national and regional level.
In this Virtual Brief, Luigi Carafa discussed policy, market, and governance pertaining to the Renewable Energy industry in the MENA region. The main points of his presentation are the following:

- Energy demand has been growing steadily in the Middle East-about 70% increase;
- The Energy demand CHALLENGES cannot be faced alone;
* Reduction of power losses
* Financial challenges
* Very high upfront costs/substantial initial investment
* Challenges call for regional and international cooperation;
* Policy and politics dichotomy creates a governance gap that should be overcome for the renewable energy industry to flourish;
* Policy refers to national planning-Investment in renewable requires suitable policy
* Access to cooperation refers to politics
- The way to overcome the policy and politics dichotomy is cooperation;
- Cooperation structures include;
* Cooperation over technical aspect, that should happen in such structures as the neighborhood policy between Europe and North Africa, as well as through South-South cooperation
* Industrial cooperation that would serve the purpose of changing business strategies and proposed business models, eventually leading to diversification of strategies
* Political cooperation in order to leverage into financial assistance
- Idea between renewable energy politics:
* Trade electricity from Morocco to other regions
* Have Spain be fully connected to the European continent, as it is now isolated
* Experiment with electricity transfers from Morocco to Spain
- Political will needs to be transformed into concrete results, and this happens through policy on the one hand, with sound public policy and a creation of the right conditions to enable that, and politics on the other, focused on creating several levels of cooperation around the betterment of the renewable energy sector.

RELATED CONTENT

  • Authors
    Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders
    May 6, 2020
    The Policy Center for the New South (PCNS) believes in filling in the generational and perception gaps, and this can only be achieved when the younger generations of leaders and professionals are given a seat at the table, to challenge the established perspectives and forward the conversations. The PCNS supports youth as the leaders of today and has faith in their capacity to inflict change in the present. It also believes in: intergenerational dialogue and co-leadership; youth as a ...
  • Authors
    April 6, 2020
    The COVID-19 pandemic is evolving into an unprecedented international crisis, with serious consequences for human health and economic activity. While it is still too early to accurately determine the magnitude and persistence of the economic impact of the pandemic, a short-term assessment can be made. This short opinion focuses on the implications for energy markets. The rapid decline in crude oil prices has raised concerns on both the demand and supply sides, making the outlook for ...
  • February 27, 2020
    Le Royaume du Maroc, dépourvu de pétrole et de gaz, s'est tourné, dès 1960, vers les énergies renouvelables, privilégiant alors l'hydroélectricité et la construction de barrages. Pour autant, l'essentiel des centrales électriques du pays était et demeure alimenté en gazole ou en gaz, impactant lourdement sa balance des paiements. Depuis, la demande d'électricité n'a cessé de croitre, d'une part, du fait du développement du pays et, d'autre part, suite au recours à des désalinisateur ...
  • February 27, 2020
    The Kingdom of Morocco, which has no oil and gas, has shifted to renewable energy as early as 1960, giving priority to hydroelectricity and the construction of dams. However, most of the country’s power plants were and remain powered by diesel or gas, which has a heavy impact on its balance payments. Since then, the demand for electricity has continued to grow due to the country’s development on the one hand and, as a result of the use of desalination facilities on the other hand, w ...
  • February 21, 2020
    To strengthen the role of youth as agents of community development, the Policy Center for the New South launched a year ago a call for projects grounded in new and innovative approaches to existing local problems. The iCAD is an environmental friendly business whose goal is to recycle h...
  • February 21, 2020
    To strengthen the role of youth as agents of community development, the Policy Center for the New South launched a year ago a call for projects grounded in new and innovative approaches to existing local problems. RENEWIT’s aim is to help with the socio-economic situation in Guyana thro...
  • February 21, 2020
    To strengthen the role of youth as agents of community development, the Policy Center for the New South launched a year ago a call for projects grounded in new and innovative approaches to existing local problems. The Oasis Agrytech Hackathon project is aiming to preserve the Draa Tafil...
  • Authors
    Hynd Bouhia
    February 18, 2020
    On se pose plusieurs questions sur le futur de notre environnement, notre écologie et notre biodiversité. On doit tirer la sonnette d’alarme pour protéger le Maroc et la planète pour les générations futures. L’objectif de ce Papier est de mettre en avant l’importance des initiatives qui ont été déjà lancées par le gouvernement, le secteur privé et la société civile, en vue d’assurer l’adaptation et la mitigation aux changements climatiques. Le Maroc est précurseur dans cette lancée, ...
  • Authors
    Hynd Bouhia
    February 18, 2020
    The future of our environment, ecology and biodiversity raises a number of questions. Vigilance is critical to preseving both Morocco and the planet for future generations. This Paper highlights the importance of ongoing government, private sector and civil society initiatives to ensure adaptation to, and mitigation of, climate change. Morocco is at the forefront of this momentum, as illustrated by the organization of the COP22 in Marrakech in 2016, the implementation of a National ...