04 Feb 2018

Botswana is committed to the use of environmentally friendly technology developed and used in ways that protect the environment and conserves natural resources. 

Officiating at the Southern African Solar Thermal Training and Demonstration conference, Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Mr Tshekedi Khama said the country had come to a point where it needed to pause and reflect on the growing green technology importance and why it was going to be importance  for humanity.

With plentiful reasons behind green technology importance, the minister said perhaps volumes could be written and spoken on the subject as environmental technologies uses non-polluting practices to produce things and materials which were non toxic.

He said the world had for centuries inflicted harm on mother earth especially in the late 80’s, and that it was the government’s responsibility to march a step ahead to save the environment and make the earth free from any harm or danger. 

He noted that the use of environmental technologies could reduce the usage of fossil fuels, which was harmful and destroyed the environment, adding that scientists had proven that energy production from green technology would be higher than fossil fuel sources of energy like oil, gas in the future.

He said energy transition was underway globally to increase the use of clean energy sources and to develop innovative ways of using less energy to drive sustainable development.

He further called for the use of solar energy for electricity generation, highlighting that "a significant portion of electricity generated on our continent is from non-renewable sources like petrol, natural gas, coal and other fossil fuels.”

The fuels, he said, remained expensive and had dangerous effects on health, the environment and climate.

He said securing energy was the first step to bringing African nations out of poverty and increasing the level of technology available to the population.

With significant investments into the future of solar energy, including key partnerships and modelling behaviour from leadership, Minister Khama said Africa may well become a global energy leader in the future.

“For now, the goals are to bring electricity to as many Africans as possible, encourage innovation, and drive aggressive economic growth with solar power,” he said. ENDS