Enel at CGI 2015 Annual Meeting

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In order to fight climate change and support energy transition through a systemic approach, the Clinton Foundation provides worldwide support to projects that combine reducing climate-changing emissions with economic development.

The Enel Group, which for years has been active in cutting CO2 emissions and spreading energy access through its Enabling Electricity programme, was invited by the Foundation to present a declaration of its commitment to two initiatives, in Africa and in Peru. The projects were selected, the Clinton Foundation explains, for their model approach to tackling crucial global challenges. They will be included in the portfolio of innovative projects receiving the Foundation’s support, which has already benefitted more than 430 million people in over 180 countries.

Enel’s Head of Sustainability, Andrea Valcalda, represented the Group on the panel “Climate Change and Resiliency: Redefining Business as Usual”, held in New York during the Clinton Global Initiative 2015 Annual Meeting. These commitments, described in the document “Job Training and Clean Energy Access in Africa and Peru”, which was presented at the event, have to do with Enel Green Power’s work to develop communities lacking reliable access to energy sources.

In the first commitment, a partnership between EGP and the Indian NGO Barefoot College that brings electricity to isolated rural villages in Latin America travels to Africa. Five Masai women from Kenya and 40 women from Tanzania will spend six months at the Barefoot College in India, where they will learn how to install and maintain solar PV panels. After the training, they will return to their villages to act as solar engineers, training other women and exporting their competencies to neighboring villages. The Enel renewable energies company will also help build the Barefoot College Training Center in Tanzania.

In Peru, Enel Green Power will support economic growth in the city of San Juan de Marcona, which is hindered by an unreliable power system. In addition to training future solar engineers, EGP will develop an off-grid solution to improve local fishing, which will benefit from new techniques and the creation of an algae and urchin hatchery, powered mainly by renewable energy.

Enel’s commitment declaration is available on the Clinton Foundation website.