WFP, Italian energy firm ENEL sign €8m pact to fight hunger, climate change in Ghana, other countries

Italian energy company, Enel and the World Food Programme (WFP), have signed an €8 million agreement to tackle the challenges of climate change and hunger in four countries.

The innovative approach will address the impact of climate change on hunger and under-nutrition while also reducing WFP’s carbon footprint.

The agreement will make Enel install solar panels to cut greenhouse gas emissions at UN Humanitarian Response Depots (UNHRD), managed by WFP on behalf of the humanitarian community.

“The pilot sites where Enel will conduct feasibility studies are located in Brindisi (Italy), Panama City (Panama), Dubai (UAE) and Accra (Ghana). UNHRDs are used to pre-position, store and handle emergency supplies and support equipment, allowing the humanitarian community to deliver emergency relief items as soon as they are needed,” the WFP said in a statement December 6, 2011.

Enel will also support high-efficiency cooking stoves projects, partly through WFP’s Safe Access to Firewood and Alternative Energy in Humanitarian Settings. The SAFE project reaches schools, community centres and poor households to provide a means to cook WFP food rations, protect women against violence during firewood collection and decrease deforestation and carbon emissions by using less fuel.

The two bodies unveiled the plan at the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa.

By Ekow Quandzie