Lesotho attends Bonn renewable energy meeting 

A non-governmental organisation, the Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) will represent Lesotho at a regional civil society preparatory meeting on renewable energy, to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa from February 24 to 26.

PELUM Lesotho Coordinator, Mr. Moshe Ts'ehlo, told LENA that the meeting will bring together SADC member states to agree on renewable energy responses ahead of an international conference on renewable energy in Bonn, Germany in June this year.

Civil society in the SADC zone believes that they need to play a stronger role in making the Bonn Conference a success, collating ideas and experiences from the SADC region. The Johannesburg meeting  should highlight the importance and opportunities of renewable energies for Southern Africa. It is also intended to foster closer cooperation between civil society organizations from the SADC member states,  other stakeholders such as government ministries and regional networks.

Among key issues to be tackled at the meeting will be ways of promoting the different forms of renewable energy, Mr. Ts'ehlo said.

Mr. Ts'ehlo said the Bonn conference will be held to address energy issues with a specific focus on developing countries. Civil society organizations have realised that it is only through using renewable
energy initiatives that climate change can be controlled. 

The conference was prompted by the failure of the developed countries to commit themselves in the areas of renewable energy, Mr. Ts'ehlo said, expressing civil society's belief that renewable gases could go a long way towards reducing the harmful gases that affect world climatic change.

National consultations on renewable energy will be initiated early in the next month in various districts of the country, he announced.

29 January 2004