In the year of the African COP, the continent can tackle energy access and climate leadership in one sweep
UGANDA, Karamoja, Loyoro village, installation of solar panels. Credits: Joerg Boethling / Alamy.
By Amos WemanyaAlthough the climate talks in Glasgow left many of the promises by rich countries unfulfilled. The mention of fossil fuels, oil, gas and coal production has risen in priority on the global climate stage with many hoping it will rightly dominate discussions in Sharm El-Sheikh at COP27, which will be a COP on African soil. These climate talks should carry our continent’s interests as being least responsible for climate change and yet one of the most impacted. COP27 will also be the opportunity for our nations to show its climate leadership and its potential in terms of access to renewable energy.
Africa has indeed become a living case study of how the Global South will increase energy access while also cultivating economic and social development. The world watches because our continent as a whole is at a crossroads and the policy choices made domestically will have major implications for the global climate and community development. This could mean leapfrogging our way into a cleaner future, as long as we don’t get in our own way.
The world saw electricity access rise to 90 percent in 2018. This growth is immense but it still leaves more than 1 billion people in the dark, more than half of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa. Even with increasing electricity access, global primary energy demand is expected to fall between now and 2050 thanks to energy efficiency measures and increased electrification but a huge exception is here in Africa where overall demand is due to rise along with wider access for citizens.
However, to say that the potential for Africa to address that growing demand via renewable energy is enormous would be an understatement. Recent analysis shows that, on average, renewable energy can fulfil global demand 50 times over, but the supply factor for Africa specifically is several times even more than that, using just onshore wind and solar. So while Africa is the only continent expected to see that major increase in total energy demand, it is undoubtedly the region with the most potential capacity to meet it with renewable energy capacity.
But it is not news that Africa can become a renewable energy superpower. Researchers and campaigners alike have recognized our continent’s huge potential for years. The difference now is that decarbonisation is fully implementable while keeping the lights on since the technologies are market ready, cost competitive and more agile than grid-reliant fossil fuels. The benefits of renewable energy on the economy and social well-being are evident; from provision of a growing number of jobs each year to helping communities build resilience to extreme weather events.
A handful of African nations are already acting. Rwanda has an ambitious target of 60% renewable energy generation by 2030. The world’s largest concentrated solar farm sits in Morocco. Countries like Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa have made large renewables investments.
But these positive moves could be overshadowed by the wider difficulties of climate change in that decreased emissions in one region can easily be outweighed by increases elsewhere on the continent.
One looming threat is in Namibia’s Kavango Basin where Canada’s ReconAfrica is still due to drill hundreds of exploratory wells upstream from the Okavango Delta. Estimates that the basin could produce as much as 120 billion barrels of oil equivalent is worrying not only in terms of potential climate impacts if burned but also the more immediate costs for environment and human health with extraction, in particular for the indigenous San who already lost most of their land during the colonial era. And given the widening consensus that there is no room for fossil fuels in a 1.5°C world, that is a lot of potential stranded assets for the nation, risking further energy insecurity and public revenue threats.
The African leadership for COP 27 and the growing chorus for initiatives like the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty are incredibly timely to put the needs of vulnerable nations above the interests of rich countries, but also to define their role to support Global South countries’ potential for their clean transition away from fossil fuels.
Amos Wemanya is Senior Energy Advisor at Power Shift Africa, leading partner for the Treaty campaign in Africa.
