OPINION PIECE:
HOW TO POWER AFRICA
We should not jeopardise Africa’s future in the name of fighting
climate change, writes NJ Ayuk.
Pressure is building to phase out fossil fuels in Africa to fight
climate change. Organisations ranging from the World Bank
to the European Investment Bank (EIB) have dropped support
for African fossil fuel production in hopes of encouraging a
transition from oil, gas and coal to sustainable energy sources
like wind and solar power.
Now there are legitimate concerns that investor support for
oil and gas production will dwindle as well. Blackrock, which
controls UAS7- trillion in investments, and the Royal Bank of
Scotland have said they’ll be moving away from investments
that support fossil fuel production.
The anti-fossil fuel fervor is being demonstrated in what may
seem like surprising ways: The Bank of England was criticised for
having an oil company executive sitting on its board of directors.
Pressure is coming from within the African continent, as well.
Lobbies from Kenya and the surrounding region, for example,
recently petitioned the African Union to put a stop to coal usage
and look into phasing out oil and gas usage over the next three
decades in hopes of eliminating emissions that contribute to
global warming.
I agree that climate change should be taken seriously, but
we cannot accept knee-jerk responses. We must not rob our
continent of the significant benefits it can realise from oil and
gas operations, from the economic opportunities of monetised
natural resources to critically important gas-to-power initiatives.
I am not, by any means, calling for a stop to sustainable energy
programmes. They are being implemented, and I hope to see
more. I’m simply saying it’s too soon for an either-or approach to
green energy sources and fossil fuels.
What’s more, it should be Africans, not well-meaning outsiders,
who determine when the timing is right to phase out fossil fuels
in Africa, if ever. Pressuring Africa to do otherwise is insulting, no
better than throwing foreign aid at us with the assumption that
Africans are incapable of building a better future for ourselves.
It’s also hypocritical for countries and people who enjoy the
security, greater life expectancy, comforts and economic
opportunities associated with plentiful, reliable energy to say,
“Time’s up, Africa. No more fossil fuels for you. Desperate times
call for desperate measures.”
What about the desperation that the 600 000-plus Africans
without power live with every day? Is it reasonable to expect
them to wait for green energy to evolve while domestic natural
gas and crude oil reserves can be exploited to create electricity
and heating fuel far more quickly?
Addressing energy poverty
We cannot move forward with phasing out fossil fuels in Africa
before we address the huge swaths of our continent existing in
energy poverty. I strongly agree with OPEC Secretary General
Mohammed Barkindo, who said in a recent speech: “The
almost one billion people worldwide who currently lack access
to electricity and the three billion without modern fuels for
cooking are not just statistics on a page. They are real people …
Nobody should be left behind.”
Closer to home, more than two-thirds of the population of
sub-Saharan Africa, more than 620 million people, lack access
to electricity. Even more infuriating, that number is likely to
increase. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has predicted
that by 2040, about 75% of sub-Saharan Africa will lack access
to electricity. Why? Surging populations are far outpacing the
spread of infrastructure.
As I wrote in my 2019 book, Billions at Play: The Future of African
Energy and Doing Deals, living without electricity is much
more than an inconvenience. It keeps people from modern
health care, and it exposes them to toxic air pollution caused
by burning unsafe fuels indoors. It also reinforces poverty and
contributes to economic stagnation: Businesses, factories and
schools need electricity to function and grow.
I’m convinced that one of our continent’s best chances of
eliminating energy poverty is to strategically exploit our abundant
natural gas resources instead of exporting and flaring it. Africa had
503.3 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves available
to us as of 2017. Natural gas can be used to fuel electricity
generation: it’s available; it produces less carbon dioxide emissions
than diesel, gasoline or coal; and it’s affordable. In fact, its price
recently fell to its lowest February level in 20 years. What’s more,
natural gas can be integrated with wind and solar power to
produce energy that’s both sustainable and reliable.
While gas-to-power will require effort, from the creation of
intra-African trade agreements that make natural gas available
to countries without it to cooperation from power producers, it
represents a very doable way for Africans to resolve one of the
continent’s greatest challenges.
NJ Ayuk, executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber and CEO of
pan-African corporate law conglomerate Centurion Law Group.
www. africanmining.co.za
African Mining Publication
With that in mind, this is a horrible time to stop producing and
using natural gas in Africa.
African Mining
African Mining April 2020
41