some African countries have continued with coal-based energy production despite calls to wean economies from relying on environmentally unfriendly power generating projects. (Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Africa’s energy crisis will be top on the agenda at the COP27 meeting later this year, as the continent’s negotiators up demands for rich countries to commit to their pledges on climate finance.
In successive climate negotiations since the first United Nations Climate Change Conference was convened nearly three decades ago, low-income countries have expressed frustration on what has become routine failure to persuade their richer counterparts to open their purses.
With the African continent now facing a raft of climate-related crises, from droughts, floods to untamed deforestation, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca) says in the lead-up to COP27 in Egypt in November, climate finance action has never been more urgent.
“Funding must be made available without regard to global geopolitics,” said Jean-Paul Adams, the director of Uneca’s technology, climate change and natural resource management division.
Critics contend that global politics has denied African countries negotiating clout, resulting in stalled concessions with industrialised economies that are the world’s largest polluters.
Adams spoke this week during a virtual media briefing on COP27 to highlight what Uneca calls the “African regional dialogue on climate initiatives to finance climate action and the sustainable development goals”.
Goal seven seeks universal access to electricity by 2030.
By some estimates sub-Saharan Africa has seen an increase in the number of people without electricity from 556-million in 2010 to 570-million people in 2019.
Given such grim figures, the continent’s energy needs will likely dominate COP27 negotiations with an increasing number of African countries facing crippling power shortages that have affected economic activity and further downgraded the continent’s human development index.
Many African countries rely on hydro-powered electricity, making them vulnerable in light of climate-induced low dam levels which have resulted in reduced thermal generation.
According to Uneca, Africa only received 7.5% of its climate finance needs between 2014 and 2018 from developed countries as part of annualised $100-billion climate finance pledges, but the UN agency says by 2025, $500-billion should have been mobilised, with energy sector investments taking centre stage.
The figure is expected to reach $1.3-trillion going beyond 2025 but African negotiators still have to figure out what amounts will come as grants from rich countries and private investors, Adams told journalists.
“There is no one-size-fits-all as some African countries do not have access to hydro, thermal, natural gas or nuclear energy sources. The biggest barrier for African countries to transition to clean energy is raising capital for these projects,” he said.
This comes as some African countries have continued with coal-based energy production despite calls to wean economies from relying on environmentally unfriendly power generating projects.
Although renewable energy production has been cited as capital intensive, Adams says in the long term, it is much cheaper as African countries stand to benefit from carbon offsets.
“Every African country must minimise fossil-based energy production, and through nature-based carbon removal, African countries can generate revenue of between $15- and $82-billion annually depending on the price of carbon credits and support 35-million to 167-million jobs and livelihoods,” Adams said.
Besides experiencing rolling power outages, African countries have struggled to bring electricity to rural areas, stalling development in wide ranging sectors that include health and agriculture.
These concerns come as South Africa, the continent’s largest economy, faces an unprecedented power crisis that has seen rolling blackouts. Its neighbour Zimbabwe has not been spared.
In the face of poor investment in the energy sector, Uneca says there needs to be clarity on how African countries work with both richer countries and the private sector as the continent is losing up to 5% of its GDP as a consequence of power deficits.
It says the solution lies in African countries creating a conducive environment for investors, some of whom have encouraged them to press on with coal-based electricity generation.
“The pathway towards achieving carbon zero includes reducing perception risk from the private sector as renewable energy is a high intensity financial project,” Adams said.
Efforts to set up solar and wind farms have hit snags in some parts of the continent with officials citing limited resources in setting up such projects.
Although some countries have made strides in courting investors to explore natural gas production, which Uneca has identified as the optimal transitional energy, little has emerged from such initiatives.
“Improving access to energy will provide the pathway for net zero. Africa will need to nearly double its present electricity generation capacity by 2030 and increase it by at least five-fold by 2050, which translates to 1 250 gigawatts,” Adams said.
The African Development Bank says the continent needs 160GW of new electricity capacity annually, which will provide 150-million households with clean energy at an investment cost of between $60- and $90-billion a year.
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