THE PLACE OF SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA IN THE EMERGING ENERGY-CLIMATE ERA

Sub-Saharan Africa depends largely on inefficient traditional biomass used mainly for cooking and heating water in households. Traditional biomass accounts for over 80% of primary energy demands. These sources of energy, for example, fire wood and charcoal burn inefficiently, giving rise to energy loss. The surrounding environment is also degraded, through the depletion of forest resources. The rest of the world is already looking beyond the era of fossil fuel by investing in renewable energy technology, creating new jobs and helping reduce the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. In sub-Saharan Africa however, the question is not so much about climate change and environmental impact but rather, energy availability. This has led to adoption of energy inefficient standards like gas flaring in Nigeria’s oil rich delta and extensive burning of coal in thermal power stations of South Africa and further raises the question of the place of sub-Saharan Africa in the emerging Energy-Climate Era; will the sub-Saharan Africa wake up one day and find itself behind the rest of the world in this new era? Or should they start now to identify, build and strengthen the capacity to respond to questions raised by climate change?

It can be said that the key challenge facing Africa is not to increase energy consumption per se, but to ensure access to cleaner energy services, preferably through energy efficiency and renewable energy thus promoting sustainable consumption. Long-term solutions to energy poverty are simply unthinkable without adequate access to investment. There is the need to maximize entrepreneurship, transfer skills and capacities and encourage public-private partnerships. Climate change challenges should also be integrated into policy decisions. Equally relevant is the need for the emergence of strong private governance to comprehensively articulate an action plan, focusing on the activities of private non-state actors as they relate to climate change.

The bottom line; clean energy economy will not only prosper Africa’s economy, it will slow down deforestation and solve energy poverty. Sub-Saharan Africa will also have more jobs and fewer footprints on earth. Sub-Saharan Africa cannot afford to play a catch up role yet again – not in this new energy-climate era.