Italy is in the front row for energy security in Africa. The participation of the Ministry of the Environment's delegation at the ninth global conference of the International Energy Agency (IEA), which for the first time is being held on the African continent, and not by chance in Nairobi, increasingly the hub of talks, programmes, and decisions concerning everything that revolves around environmental sustainability and climate change. One of the first significant speeches at the opening of the conference, after the words of the Kenyan Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Davis Chirchir, was that of the Italian Undersecretary for the Environment, Claudio Barbaro.
Barbaro, recalling the government's commitment through the Mattei Plan, reiterated the importance of energy security through sustainability. Italy, both in terms of cooperation and of its major companies, first and foremost ENI, has long since chosen (and has chosen) Kenya as a priority partner for bilateral projects with African nations. A vision also shared by the Deputy Energy Minister, Alex Wachira, who during his speech expressed great appreciation for the themes brought as a dowry by the Mattei Plan.
This time, it really seems that it is not just talk, because the common path is already studded with funds, financing, joint investments, and projects that have as their established goal, the mutual good.
As the other speakers also reiterated, one cannot talk about energy development without considering that there are still millions of Africans who have no access to electricity and that they lack not only 'security', but light altogether.
In spite of this, Kenya's potential is very high and should be exploited: it is not only the cradle of civilisation, but one of the countries of the future in the world, and Italy can participate in its growth and also benefit from it.
Exactly as the African proverb quoted by Barbaro during his speech states: 'If you want to arrive first, run alone, if you want to go far, walk together'.