Africa’s energy requirements in the face of a world transitioning to renewable energy to keep the “global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius,” tops the agenda at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt.
The hypocrisy of the rich world in asking that poor countries similarly adopt cleaner energy technologies when even for dirty fuels, they are yet to be self-sufficient, is writ large. Even so, the opportunity of adding renewable sources into an African energy mix that has barely made much use of its vast fossil fuel reserves is widely acknowledged.
In the almost three decades of COP summits, there has been a trend of shifting goal posts. Pledges have been made routinely with little to show for. Estimates of the costs of successfully transitioning developing countries to renewable energy sources by 2050 range from $1-2trillion. Rich countries fell short of their annual $100 billion climate financing commitment made to developing countries by as much as $17 billion in 2020, according to data by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Africa contributes less than 5 percent to global carbon emissions and yet, it suffers most as a result of climate change. Thus, it is imperative that global stakeholders agree on concessions for Africa at COP27 that ensure that the continent is able to make the transition as painlessly as possible
Africa contributes less than 5 percent to global carbon emissions and yet, it suffers most as a result of climate change. Thus, it is imperative that global stakeholders agree on concessions for Africa at COP27 that ensure that the continent is able to make the transition as painlessly as possible.
Climate reparations and compensation by rich countries to their poor counterparts, which are most affected by the effects of carbon emissions from the rich world’s pollution, is on the agenda at COP27, the first time it will be formally tabled since the first COP meeting in Berlin, Germany, in March 1995. In the face of its longstanding energy poverty, what should Africa’s position be at COP27? This is the key question I address in the research paper.
COP & the African energy dilemma
Sufficiency in fossil fuels, which are relatively abundant and cheaper, for their energy requirements has eluded most African countries thus far. It is hard to imagine that renewables will be any different for Africa, as the world aims for net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
It is unrealistic to expect African countries to give up fossil fuels within such an ambitious timeframe. Still, many African governments launched their energy transition plans well ahead of COP27, where they expect to secure concessions of a time-bound continued usage of fossil fuels as well as financing to successfully transition to greener energy sources.
In August 2022, Nigeria launched a $410 billion energy transition plan that aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2060, with an annual $10 billion financing requirement, for instance. A shift to renewable energy will come at significant costs to many African countries.
First, there will be redundancies in the traditional extractive industry even as new jobs get created in the green economy. Second, there is the real possibility that much of fossil fuel assets could remain stranded – thus denying governments much needed revenue.
It is simply unrealistic to expect that rich countries will fund the annual $1.3trillion financing requirement that is estimated Africa will need from 2025 onward to meet its climate action goals, when an earlier commitment of $100billion a year turned out to be just hot air.
Thus, while plans by poor nations under the aegis of the Climate Vulnerable Forum to push for compensation from rich countries for increasing incidences of floods and droughts at COP27 are justifiable, it will hardly materialise into action if past antecedents of rich countries on climate action reparations and financing are anything to go by. Even so, the European Union signalled in late October 2022 that it would be willing to negotiate climate reparations for poor countries at COP27, which is why it agreed to its inclusion on the agenda.
Several ideas are being mooted about how rich countries could better fulfill their climate financing commitments. The bumper profits of oil and gas companies could be taxed by their rich parent countries to pay for the negative externalities of their industry on the planet, Oxfam International suggests, for instance.
In any case, the African Union (AU) will be insisting that the continent be allowed to continue using all forms of energy sources available to its member countries towards development.
This is not entirely peculiar, as even Germany resorted to coal when its energy poverty was as low as 30% talk less the African case of over 70 percent. There is certainly now a “need to find the nexus of transition energy and energy poverty,” according to Bogolo Kenewendo, the Africa director of the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions initiative.
An edited version was first published by the NTU-SBF Centre for African Studies at Nanyang Business School, Singapore. References, figures and tables are in the
original article. See link viz. https://www.ntu.edu.sg/cas/news-events/news/details/three-proposals-that-should-be-adopted-at-cop27
