As the Covid-19 pandemic bashes economic and demand for oil, many African Nations dependent on exporting fossil fuels are ”haemorrhaging” cash, African energy experts warned this week.
The crisis-which comes as more investors shun carbon-heavy businesses-is a taste of what may happens if Africa’s rich oil and gas reserves become ”stranded assets” that cannot be pumped as the world shifts to clean energy to meet climate goals.
Fatima Denton, director of the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa, said such a situation has always been ”talked about as a hypothetical scenario”.
”But its far to say its what’s happening now.” she said.
Hard-hit nations could respond to the threat in two ways, African experts said: either by switching up a gear on renewable power in a bid to meet development and climate change goals, or by pumping fossil fuels faster while they fuels faster while they still can.
”Its time to optimise our resources,” Senyo Hosi, chief executive officer of Ghana Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors, told an online event this week.
”If we don’t utilise [fossil fuels] in time, we’ll make fools of ourselves and miss a major opportunity.”
Cutting back on fossil fuels use to curb global warming is the job of rich countries that produce the vast majority of global emissions-not Africans nations which are responsible for any tiny share, noted James Murombezi, coordinator of the African Climate Policy Centre.
But Denton said the continent had the potential to leapfrog dirty technology in getting electric power to the 565 million Africans who still live without it today.
”Africa could become the custodian of a new sustainable development world order” if it can make that energy transition in a a clean way.
Doing so could also be an opportunity to root out corruption in oil gas nation that has meant Africa’s fossil fuels resources
”have never benefited the great majority of our people”, she said.
Damilola Ogunbiyi, the UN Secretary-General’s special representative on Sustainable Energy for All, said that as African States try to recover from Covid-19 ”they are faced with a unique, once-in-a generation opportunity to ‘recover better’.
”Countries that recover better with sustainable energy will see the payoff in the form of resilient economics, new jobs and faster energy development”, giving them a competitive advantage, she said a Sustainable Energy for All, a global energy access body, published a clean recovery guide for Africa this week.
Installing and maintaining solar mini grids and solar home systems, in particular, could create million of jobs fro the fast-growing number of youth Africans seeking work, clean energy backers said.
But finding political support and cash for a green energy transformation will be a huge challenge in many parts of Africa, not least with budgets flattened by the pandemic, they added.
The Daily Times_July 16, 2020_REUTERS