The Ministerial Segment of the Second High-Level Meeting (HLM) of the Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP) convened in plenary discussions throughout Thursday. During the opening session in the morning, delegates heard welcome statements from Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy, Ethiopia; Elham Ibrahim, Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, AUC; Andris Pielbags, EU Commissioner for Development (by video message); Christian Schmidt, Deputy Minister, Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany; and Andreas Melan, Ambassador of Austria to Ethiopia. The session closed with inspirational messages from Kandeh Yumkella, UN Special Representative on SE4ALL, and Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Chairperson, AUC.

Participants then convened in two plenary discussions bringing together African and European Ministers and heads of partner international institutions to assess the achievements of Africa-EU cooperation in the energy sector and consider concrete actions for taking action, mobilizing commitment and coordinating efforts towards the AEEP and SE4ALL targets. This was followed by a business and policy leaders roundtable which discussed ways to improve public-private collaboration to attract and substantially accelerate private investments to meet the AEEP 2020 Targets.

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During a final plenary session in the afternoon, participants considered draft text of the AEEP-HLM outcome document, the Addis Ababa Communiqué, which contains nine recommendations for accelerating access to sustainable energy on both continents and achieving the AEEP Targets. The Communiqué also contains four key messages to be forwarded to African and EU Heads of State and Government at the EU-Africa Summit in April 2014. Participants then viewed a short video prepared by young environmental journalists attending the meeting with their impressions of the discussions.

The ministerial segment concluded with final remarks by Minister Alemayehu Tegenu, and Director-General Klaus Rudischhauser.

The IISD RS summary report from the event will be available on this site on Sunday, 16 February 2013.

Summary and pictures are provided by IISD Reporting Services.
For full summary and more pictures, please check the IISD website.