Energy demand in Zimbabwe has been growing by over 2% per annum. However, the country produces only 1300MW of electricity versus a demand of 2200MW, meaning that only 59% of the country’s energy demand is produced internally, leaving a national deficit of about 41%. This has stifled industrial production at national level across all economic sectors (both in the formal and informal economy). The 2015 Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) State of the Manufacturing Sector Survey indicated that power cuts and shortages are amongst the five top structural bottlenecks negatively affecting industrial production. Unable to remain competitive as a result, some companies have responded by reducing the size of their workforce or shutting down completely. Power outages have likewise heavily disrupted the accessibility and availability of essential basic social services such as water and sanitation, education and health, which are basic socio-economic rights. The government has been trying to address this through load shedding and increasing imports. Moreover, the main sources of energy in Zimbabwe are non-replenishable, i.e., wood, coal, electricity and

petroleum. In 2009, the dominant source was wood fuel (61%), followed by liquid fuels 18%), electricity (13%) and coal (8%). This dependency on high-carbon wood fuel is major contributor to the production of greenhouse gas (GHG), climate change and thus environmental unsustainability. The 2014 Labour Force Survey revealed that 65.2% of the population still relied on wood for cooking, of whom 92.5% were living in rural areas. Despite the rural electrification programme, electricity usage in rural areas remained low, being only 5.3%. In light of the above, sustainable and renewable energy has emerged as one of the anchors in national policies and developmental frameworks such as the National Energy Policy (2012), the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-

Asset) (2013–2018) and the National Response Strategy on Climate Change (2015). It also has great potential to create green jobs at all levels of society and in rural and urban areas.