By Jack Dini ——Bio and Archives--January 17, 2024
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The African continent has a land area of 30.37 million sq km (11.7 million sq mi)--enough to fit in the US, China, India, Japan, Mexico and many European nations, combined. In other words it's enormous. (1)
The population of sub-Saharan Africa is the fastest growing in the world, expected to double by 2050. To put that in perspective, by mid-century one in four people on the planet will be in sub-Saharan Africa. Considering the significance of the African population on the global stage, and the need to connect these people to clean and reliable energy, the continent poses a significant challenge for climate goals on a global scale. (2)
Let's take a look at how Africa fits into human development. The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living. It is a standard of living means of measuring well-being. It is used to distinguish whether the country is developed, developing, or underdeveloped country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. Countries fall into four broad categories based on their HDI: very high, high, medium, and low human development. Currently, Mauritius is the only Africa country that falls into the vary high human development category. Of the 54 African countries, 27 are in the low human development category.
There are 195 countries in the world. Africa's 27 countries listed in the low human development category range from numbers 161 to 192, pretty much the total bottom of the list.
Today, 600 million people across the African continent still lack access to energy. Yet African leaders are facing the necessary and virtually unprecedented necessity of skipping straight to cutting edge, and comparatively expensive green technologies. (2)
African priorities differ from most of Europe and North America. Among the Dark Continent's most daunting challenges are poverty, malnutrition, lack of infrastructure, and underdeveloped technologies for energy information and communications. Therefore, Africans do not have the option to adapt unscientific and unachievable climate policies that address any of these issues in a serious way. (3)
Nations in Africa's vast continent increasingly rely on their abundant natural resources to drive economic development. Oil and gas deposits have distinguished themselves as significant drivers of economics in several African countries.
Africa finds itself in a very hostile world where there is increasing difficulty in finding the capital to initiate and maintain their fossil fuel projects The World Bank Group that is financing coal projects is under pressure to discontinue its investment in fossil fuel projects. The economic benefits of fossil fuel production are obvious and badly needed. Western leaders must acknowledge them and abandon efforts to force vacuous climate policies on African populations whose rewards of modernity are overdue. (4)
Africa, and individual African countries and regions, should be the ones making decisions on energy, not outsiders, and not based on disinformation, pressure and bullying from outsiders. They should not be forced to accept biomass energy imposed on them by global eco-imperialists. (5)
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Coal is likely to be key, in particular clean coal. Coal delivers 90% of South Africa's power, and in Botswana the figure is 100%. And clean coal is certainly real. Professor Rosemary Falcon pioneered the Clean Coal Research Group at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. She and her team have proved that clean coal is not only possible, but one of the cheapest ways to generate electricity. This has not stopped environmentalists attacking the countries that want to move to clean coal. All that is holding up a wholesale change to clean coal is a lack of funding and political will. (6)
Major international funders are beginning to withdraw funding for fossil fuel projects and enforce their pro-renewable policies. The African Development Bank announced in 2019 that it will longer finance coal projects. Private firms are also pulling out of fossil fuel projects in order to comply with the pro-renewable policy shift in Europe and America.
As climate pledges pile up, a worrying theme is emerging that bold efforts by rich nations to decarbonize the global economy will be ruined by hordes of new consumers in the developing world buying cars, installing air conditioning, and taking planes.
China's and India's rapid development and steep emissions trajectories have been central to these fears, but Western governments and climate activists have found little traction there.
Instead, the focus of attention has now shifted to Africa, where energy use is still very low, and where rich countries see an opportunity to apply pressure by leveraging development aid and cutting off finance. This is already leading to harmful policies that will hurt millions of poor Africans by slowing down their continent's economic development while doing little, if anything, to help fight climate change. (7)
Scaremongering about Africa points to a disturbing undertone in rich world debates. On climate change, as on so many other issues, many in the West seem to see Africans as a mass of passive victims lacking agency and requiring charity, the quintessential 'white man's burden', or a looming threat to civilization. To save the planet, this thinking goes, Africans can't enjoy a high energy future that people in rich countries take for granted. The climate just can't afford Africans to be prosperous.
To expect Africans to produce their energy out of air and sun displays an arrogance that denies the physical realities of generating electricity for millions. A Tanzanian takes 8 years to consume as much electricity as an American consumes in 1 month, while a freezer in the United States consumes 10X more electricity than a Liberian in North Africa uses in 1 year. (8)
The solution to Africa's immediate energy needs and long term economic improvement is more investment in coal oil, and natural gas, fuels that offer reliability and affordability.
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Jack Dini is author of Challenging Environmental Mythology. He has also written for American Council on Science and Health, Environment & Climate News, and Hawaii Reporter.