Originally published on Sustainnovate.
If you haven’t heard the news: ~1.3 billion people don’t have electricity… or any electricity at all. The health, education, and economic difficulties that result are impossible to comprehend. Those are some notes from Dr Nawal Al-Hosany, Director of Sustainability at Masdar and Director of the Zayed Future Energy Prize, introducing a panel discussion during the recent World Future Energy Summit that convened Zayed Future Energy Prize finalists to bring a focus to energy innovation in areas of the world most vulnerable to global warming and catastrophic climate change.
Before the panel started, Dr Han Seung-soo, UN Special Envoy for Disaster Risk Reduction and Water as well as Vice Chairman of the Zayed Future Energy Prize Jury, gave a keynote speech to stimulate the discussion.
Following Dr Han’s presentation, at ~19:23 into the video, Dikirani Thaulo talked about some of the challenges that lack of electricity bring to places like Malawi, and also introduced the Zayed Solar Academy he works at in the African country. It is a moving speech, so have a listen.
Michael Liebreich, Chairman of the Advisory Board of Bloomberg New Energy Finance and moderator of the panel came up at 28:44 to add a few more words and then introduce the panel and get going. As one part of that, Michael noted that Zayed Future Energy Prize winners have already improved the lives of 200 million people — and that’s just the winners, not also finalists.
Panelists included top personnel at Vestas, SunnyMoney, Liter of Light, and Kopernik. Their opening statements and the discussion between them started at about 33:33 in. Have a watch!
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