Energy Voices

Mini-grid entrepreneurs, youth activists, financiers and foundations, heads of international NGOs and women's associations. In this series of interviews, energy leaders from around the world, drawn from the members of the Technical Working Groups for the High-level Dialogue on Energy, share their innovative work towards clean, affordable energy for all, as well as giving a preview of their potential Energy Compacts for the Dialogue.

Dr. Wiebe Boer
CEO, All On / Shell

All On has invested in over 30 clean energy companies whose products and services are closing the energy access gap in Nigeria, including through Solar Home Systems, Solar Energy Systems, mini-grids, cold storage and battery-as-a-service. Its portfolio companies are providing affordable clean power to low-income households and small businesses across the country and have directly turned lights on in tens of thousands of Nigerian homes and businesses since 2017. Dr. Boer says the High-level Dialogue “has come at the right time” and will go a long way in accelerating strong energy commitments globally.

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Reema Nanavaty
Director, Self Employed Women’s Association, India

Over 5,000 women salt-pan workers in rural India have switched over to solar pumps, replacing fossil fuels with green energy. And over 40 small-holder women farmers have been able to access solar pumps for agriculture. This is just one example of the multi-faceted work by the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a member-based organization of over 1.9 million poor women workers from the informal economy in India. The Director of SEWA, Reema Nanavaty, contributed this interview.

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Helen Watts
Senior Director, Global Partnerships Student Energy

Student Energy, with 47 chapters on post-secondary campuses in 22 countries, engaged over 16,000 youth in 2020 alone, illustrating how the global youth climate and energy movement is growing steadily in numbers and influence. Helen Watts, the Senior Director for Global Partnerships, contributed this interview to Energy Voices.

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Dymphna van der Lans
CEO, Clean Cooking Alliance

The Clean Cooking Alliance works with a global network of partners to help make clean cooking accessible to the three billion people who live each day without it. In 2020, it launched the Cooking Industry Catalyst, a program that supports a venture portfolio of 33 companies operating in 14 countries, to make them more commercially viable and investment-ready. Last year the Alliance secured commitments of more than US$16 million for the new Spark+ Africa Fund, to scale up clean cooking solutions in Africa. Major Energy Compacts to support clean cooking are in the works with partners.

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Jacqueline Kimeu
International Coordinator, ACCESS Coalition

ACCESS Coalition brings together organizations and networks working at the local, national, regional and international levels to deliver energy services to last mile communities. By voicing the needs of people, the Coalition helps ensure that policy and practice is responsive and reflects on-the-ground realities. For the High-level Dialogue, they are committed to mobilizing new, inclusive coalitions of stakeholders so as to go beyond business-as-usual approaches to energy service planning and delivery in order to achieve SDG 7 by 2030. In particular, they would like to champion for more needs-based planning underpinned by better data.

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