Clean energy trailblazers were announced as African winners in this year’s prestigious Ashden Awards at an inaugural ceremony in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
This comes ahead of the London awards event on Wednesday 2 November (7pm GMT) open to the public, where their stories and films will be shown in full.
- Register here to join us live for the global celebration, presented by UK broadcast meteorologist Laura Tobin and joined by music producer Brian Eno.
The African ceremony showcased innovative initiatives from across the continent that are improving lives and creating green jobs. All winners will receive financial support to help fund their vital work.
The ceremony, attended by African and international environmental leaders and influencers, brought to life the climate solutions showing an African low carbon world in action – empowering communities, creating sustainable livelihoods and developing renewable energy projects to protect our planet.
These are just some of the examples that could be scaled up to improve lives of the half a billion Africans who have no electricity. Ashden will be championing and demanding adequate funding from global leaders for such vital initiatives at November’s crucial COP27 climate talks, taking place in Egypt.
Worthy winners
Kakuma Ventures won the Energising Refugee Livelihoods award for providing internet access to people in a Kenyan refugee camp using solar power, creating jobs and boosting education. In the Energising Agriculture category, SokoFresh work helping farmers reduce post-harvest losses through solar powered cold storage and market linkages was recognised.
Photo: Mercy Nanja uses the Ksh. 20 internet subscription option from Kakuma Ventures to access email and apply for job opportunities. Credit: Kelvin Juma/Ashden
Photo: Denis Karema, founder of Kenya’s SokoFresh outside a mobile unit which brings solar-powered cold rooms to the country’s smallholder farmers – and helps them get a better, more reliable income from what they grow. Credit: Kelvin Juma/Ashden
For their work to improve energy access and develop skills, Togo’s Energy Generation and Zimbabwe’s Zonful Energy, were declared joint winners in the Energy Access Skills category.
Winners were chosen from more than 200 applicants by judges, including clean energy sector specialists, indigenous community representatives, refugees involved in energy access and funders. They will also attend the global Ashden Awards ceremony in London on 2 Nov joining five other award winners- three from the UK, and one from Indonesia- where films of their award-winning work will be shown.
Applying pressure
Ahead of COP27, Ashden has also helped launch Power Up, a coalition campaign uniting and amplifying African voices to call for greater global funding for affordable, green energy, essential for climate adaptation and to support those still without access to electricity.
Hear their stories at the global celebration on Wednesday 2 November, 7pm GMT
To attend the Ashden Awards London ceremony or to watch all of this year’s winners online, you can register here: The 2022 Ashden Awards London Ceremony + live online viewing – Ashden
The ceremony will also be uploaded to Ashden’s YouTube channel afterwards for those unable to watch live.
Find out more previous Ashden Award climate champions.
