Eskom told the Mail & Guardian it had only received a R9 billion World Bank loan to decommission its coal-fired Komati power station. (Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Africa’s huge renewable energy potential may contribute to better and cleaner energy for all by reducing air pollution, according to N’Datchoh Evelyne Taure, a researcher at the University Felix Houphouet-Boigny Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
These renewable resources include bioenergy, hydropower, solar and wind and
their development should be prioritised at regional and continental level to respond to future energy demand, said Taure.
She was speaking at a recent session on exploring a just energy transition in Africa through the lens of the climate, health and air quality nexus at the Sustainability, Research & Innovation Congress. The congress is a joint initiative of Future Earth and the Belmont Forum and was hosted by the Future Africa Institute at the University of Pretoria.
Taure said Africa accounts for only 6% of global energy demand and about 3% of electricity demand. The region’s energy sector, through its main sub-sector of household, traffic and industry including power generation, affects air quality and the climate.
The household sector is the main source of air quality and premature deaths on the continent because “the population does not have access to clean energy for cooking. However, the African continent has huge potential for renewable energy, which may contribute to help improve access to clean energy and save lives.”
In 2019, air pollution from all sources was responsible for 1.1 million premature deaths in Africa, said Taure, who explained that there was still a shortage of in-situ measurements to better characterise and understand air quality issues in Africa.
Emissions from greenhouse gases and pollutants (gases and particles) are “growing fast” and there is no policy control in many African countries. Air quality policies should be put in place with the involvement of the scientific community at national, regional and continental level “to improve air quality and save lives”, she said.
Rebecca Garland, an associate professor at the University of Pretoria, said: “What is clear is that there is most definitely the potential for large positive impacts [from a just transition] on air quality and climate change and this is important as air quality is a serious and growing issue across much of Africa … While the just energy transition can have multiple benefits for air pollution, we’re not seeing them prioritised at energy transition discussions.”
Philip Osano, the centre director for the Stockholm Environment Institute Africa, said Africa faced a “development penalty” from energy poverty. “We know from the latest report of the International Energy Agency that up to 2019, we had 900 million people in Africa that had no access to clean cooking …That tells you that the key priority for African governments and development actors in Africa is to make sure how to address this. Of course, we know that electricity is probably the best option but at the same time from the same report, we do know that 600 million people of course have no access to electricity.”
This was a double burden, he said. “One is, of course, being able to afford to provide electricity and the last mile is to make sure that there’s investment in terms of infrastructure and there has to be, of course, capital in terms of money but also in terms of technology to be able to do that.”
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