Joseph Africano Bartel, the Undersecretary in the Ministry of Environment and Forestry - Courtesy

The Undersecretary in the Ministry of Environment and Forestry has called on the government to prioritize harnessing renewable energy sources to attract investors.

Renewable energy is energy derived from natural sources that are replenished at a higher rate than they are consumed including hydro, sunlight and wind among others.

Joseph Africano Bartel says the country has a potential for hydro, solar, wind, geothermal and natural gas to boost the development of the country.

According to Africano investing in clean energy sources will attract investors to establish factories that will in turn produce diverse products and increase the Country’s Gross Domestic Product.

Africano spoke during an event organized by the SUDD Institute yesterday that brought together stakeholders in the energy sector to share their experiences in the renewable energy sector.

“One thing that I would like us South Sudanese to take seriously is, that we can do whatever we want but if we don’t prioritize clean energy, this country will remain a least developed country until the second coming of Jesus,” said Joseph.

“We need energy, we cannot be using muscles at this time for agriculture, we need energy to power our industries for us to be able to pump this water, and irrigate our farms 24/7. We don’t want to be a country that only depends on rainfall,” he said.

On his part, Tom Remis John Pitia, Undersecretary in the Ministry of Energy and Dams says the energy tariffs are relatively high today due to reliance on fossil fuel.

He says he supports the idea of investing in renewable energy like solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, or biomass energy.

“Renewable energy has become the call of the day and globally people are now going to shift from conventional energy to renewable energy which is very important because it is addressing so many issues including the issue of tariffs,” said Tom.

“Our tariff is very expensive, why? Because we are using the conventional source of energy which is diesel and diesel is very expensive, let alone environmental issues which accompany that,” he said.