A press conference on the “Africa Express” mission is to be held on 11 April 2012, at 11am at UIC headquarters.
“Africa Express" will be a big adventure: a tour of Africa by train starting in Paris, travelling via Tangier, down to Cape Town and finally up to Cairo. 20 green energy projects will be studied during the journey, which will be documented on video throughout the eight months.
UIC, the international association comprising 200 railway companies across five continents, supports this wonderful initiative and acknowledges the fact that the train – as the sustainable mode of transport par excellence – has been chosen by the project’s founders Jérémy Debreu and Claire Guibert as the medium for this tour of Africa dedicated to renewable energy projects.
The aims of this “Africa Express” mission are mutually supportive of those of the international railway community, which are to develop transport that is sustainable, environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient, contributing to the economic and social development of the regions through which the train will pass.
UIC is particularly pleased to offer its support to this project through its African Region, which brings together the key railway stakeholders. The African Region, chaired by Mr Mohamed Rabie Khlie, Chief Executive of Moroccan Railways (ONCF), and ONCF itself, feature on the list of partners of “Africa Express”, which is set to depart on 25 April from Tangier on an eight-month journey covering 20,000 km. UIC will be represented on the day by Mr Jean-Pierre Lehman, Coordinator of the UIC African Region.
“Africa Express” is bolstered by a Support Committee composed of a number of personalities involved in energy and the environment, and representatives of institutions and NGOs concerned by these issues. Among these partners, reference must be made to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Agency for Environment and Energy Management (ADEME), the French Development Agency (AFD), Schneider Electric, EDF, Electriciens sans Frontières, GoodPlanet, Global Village Energy Partnership (GVEP) and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA).
