Spotlight

The German Federal Foreign Office hosted the 10th edition of the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue, which it has held annually since 2015. Dr. Ibrahim Abdel Gelil attended the event, representing the Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED).

Among the most prominent dialogues, in which ministers and businessmen participated, was one on the issue of a just energy transition, especially since there are about 600 million people in Africa whose electricity needs are not met, and that about half a million women in sub-Saharan Africa lose their lives annually due to pollution resulting from wood-burning stoves.

During the two day event, the attendees discussed many energy transition issues in the world, such as fulfilling what was agreed upon at COP28 in Dubai, in terms of tripling renewable energies, doubling the improvement of energy efficiency, and phasing out fossil fuels. The German Foreign Minister announced that Germany is committed to achieving this, as the share of renewable energy in electricity production has increased by more than 50 percent since 2015. The British Minister of Energy also announced that Britain is on its way to getting rid of the last coal power stations in December of this year.

The green hydrogen industry occupied a large part of the dialogue discussions, with an emphasis on the need to agree on global specifications to define “green hydrogen” so that this promising market can grow within a framework of transparency to contribute to meeting the Paris goals of limiting temperature rises to less than 1.5 degrees.