Experts call for women-led, sustainable green transition
Lagos, Aug. 2026 (Tbl Africa ) Renewable energy experts have called for a sustainable and inclusive green transition driven by sound technology choices, stronger financing and increased participation of women.
The experts made the call at the Women’s International Green Summit and Exhibition (WIGSE-26) in Lagos, where stakeholders examined strategies to accelerate Africa’s transition to cleaner energy.
The theme of the event is “Empowering Women to Lead Africa’s Green Transition: Enhanced by Innovation, Inclusion and Impact”.
Head of Communications and ESG, Eland Cables, Deborah Graham-Wilson, urged renewable energy developers to prioritise performance, safety and durability when selecting lower-carbon electrical cables.
“Specification, electrical performance, and suitability for that installation must come first,” she said.
Graham-Wilson cautioned developers against compromising cable performance and compliance solely to achieve lower carbon emissions.
“There is nothing less sustainable than a cable that fails after five years because it wasn’t properly specified for the purpose,” she said.
She said properly specified cables could last more than 25 years, reducing maintenance and replacement costs as well as project downtime.
The expert urged developers to consider transportation, durability, waste management and recycling throughout the product life cycle.
She advised them to plan from the outset for excess cables, legacy installations and responsible disposal.
Graham-Wilson said copper and aluminium offered different environmental and cost considerations for renewable energy projects.
She said aluminium remained attractive because of its lighter weight and lower cost, despite having higher embodied carbon than copper.
The expert said sustainability should extend beyond products to workers, local supply chains and host communities.
She urged companies to support women-led initiatives, ethical employment, local suppliers and community development through their supply chains.
“Small cumulative actions build to a larger impact, be that in the community or on an individual project,” she said.
Graham-Wilson also warned that delays in procuring specialised sustainable products could increase financial and environmental costs.
She urged developers to demand reliable data and scrutinise suppliers’ sustainability claims before making procurement decisions.
Earlier, the Executive Director, Kebetkache Women Development Resource Centre, Dr Emem Okon, said women in the Niger Delta continued to face environmental degradation and energy poverty.
Okon said oil spills, gas flaring and pollution of water and farmland had disrupted livelihoods and exposed communities to serious environmental challenges.
She said women remained poorly represented in energy production and decision-making despite their heavy dependence on energy.
“Women will lead the way,” Okon said, referring to efforts to train community women in environmental remediation.
She said the organisation had trained women in community remediation and planned to expand mangrove restoration activities across the Niger Delta.
Okon also called for greater access to clean energy, particularly for women in rural communities.
The Cluster Coordinator, Just Transition and Inclusion, Nigeria Energy Support Programme, Mr Jochen Rudolph, said the energy transition must be gender-inclusive.
Rudolph said the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) supported mentorship and internship programmes aimed at increasing women’s participation in the renewable energy value chain.
He said the Nigeria Energy Support Programme had supported the development of a national gender-mainstreaming policy for the energy sector.
Rudolph said stronger representation of women in policy and investment decisions would promote a more equitable energy transition.
Also, the Director, African Centre for Research and Strategic Studies, Egypt, Dr Ghada Fouad, called for innovative green-finance mechanisms to connect grassroots projects with global capital.
Fouad said women-led energy initiatives needed measurable frameworks capable of aligning them with international green-finance requirements.
She said such frameworks could help transform grassroots projects into investable green assets and improve access to climate finance.
The summit brought together policymakers, investors, development partners, entrepreneurs, innovators, women leaders, researchers and other stakeholders in the green economy.
The summit featured high-level panel sessions on green finance, energy transition, women’s participation, climate action and sustainable technologies.
