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So Adwoa, we've been working on this report
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around energy access
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and particularly with a focus in Africa.
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And I think one key thought that comes to mind
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when I reflect back on the report
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is that there are no income-rich,
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energy-poor countries globally.
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Absolutely.
And energy access
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has been a problem for the continent for many, many decades.
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And so we think that the time to act is now.
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We think that we cannot continue
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to be in the stagnant phase of energy access.
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And maybe you can share a couple of reflections
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around some of the findings from the study
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that we've done together over the couple of weeks.
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So like Kesh said, we've been trying to understand
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what is it actually going to take to deliver these goals
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that we have to halve the number of people without access
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to electricity on the continent by 2030.
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The first three I'll talk about
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are, one, strengthening governance, planning, and reform.
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We're going to need to open up our markets.
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We're going to need to change the way that we do planning.
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We're going to need to move a lot faster,
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be a lot more data driven, a lot more granular.
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The second thing that we're going to need to do
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is rapidly upgrade and expand our grid.
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The grid is the fundamental backbone of electricity access.
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And we're going to need to,
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first of all, address an aging grid.
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We're going to need to do that in a context
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of a supply chain that's really constrained
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and where there are quite a lot of backlogs,
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whilst we still need to be able to cope
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with rising input costs,
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cope with elongating transmission
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and delivery timelines
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to be able to do that and meet our 2030 goal.
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The third one I'll talk about, Kesh,
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is about increasing the density
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of distributed renewables that we have
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and innovating different last-mile access solutions
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on our grids.
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The continent is a unique place.
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It is vast.
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We've got sparse populations that are quite spaced apart,
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which sometimes makes rolling out the traditional grid
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very challenging, much more costly.
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So we're going to need to innovate,
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we're going to need to innovate
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how we bring on last-mile solutions,
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as well as having to bring on distributed renewables,
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which we know the economics work out.
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They bring on lower levelized cost of energy
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across the grid for us.
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But we're going to have to cope
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with much more distributed generation base,
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much more intermittency,
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and the complexities of managing that on the grid as well.
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100%.
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And I think when you talk about lever number two
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around expanding the grid
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and lever number three
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around driving distributed energy solutions,
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I mean, the two are actually quite complementary.
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We don't prescribe for a solution
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that is driving just mini grid solutions
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in one part of the population
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and then utility-level grid access in the other.
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Actually what we're saying is in some cases,
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it's quicker and more cost efficient
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to serve parts of a rural population
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with the mini grid solution,
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giving you enough time to build out the grid,
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giving you enough time to drive productive uses of energy
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in that community,
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at which point the two can come together.
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And I think that's a very good segue
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into the fourth lever here,
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which is driving the right financial innovative structures,
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because a lot of these projects are difficult
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to make bankable off the bat.
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There's a lot of project-on-project risk
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as per the example I just gave right now.
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So you're not gonna be able to do this
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purely with a commercial capital stack.
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You do need blended finance.
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You do need some level of development finance coming in,
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helping to de-risk early stages of the deployment
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and then moving from there.
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And then the fifth lever that I would say
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is around this idea of driving productive uses of energy.
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And I think the really great example to think about here
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is the critical minerals opportunity for Africa.
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You know, Africa has one of the best reserves
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of critical minerals in the world.
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We know it's very good already.
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Yet we've only spent 10% of global CapEx
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when it comes to mining exploration in Africa.
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So we've just reached the tip of the iceberg
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and we think that critical minerals could be a huge driver
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of productive uses of energy
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and it's inherently then interlinked
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to then making a scalable, bankable,
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low-carbon power supply in Africa work.
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And so I think that's a very good synergy for us
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to think about going forward:
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driving cheap, low-carbon power
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on the back of new productive uses of energy
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through opportunities like the critical minerals opportunity
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that I just mentioned.