Besides playing its role in the reduction of green-house gases, fulling its Paris Agreement, the African Union believes that Africa stands to benefit greatly from the renewable energy revolution.
“Africa stands to benefit in two folds. The increased energy access, and the reduction of fossil fuels importation, thus subsequently cutting the energy import bills,” said Amani Abou-Zeid, the Commissioner for Infrastructure & Energy at the African Union Commission while the recent Berlin Energy Week and 5th Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue (BETD) that attracted delegates from 100 countries across the globe.
By reducing oil imports, she said African countries will save scarce foreign exchange required for importation of other goods.
In daring the energy transition, Africa has pursued the path reluctantly over past few years, as it is a huge task to develop energy resources due to the intensive capital required for both power generation and transmission infrastructure.
“The continent needs around 50 billion USD per year worth of investment in order to achieve universal energy access by 2030 as envisioned by the UN Sustainable Development Goals,” said Abou-Zeid.
Despite Africa’s seemingly cold feet, the continent has the greatest potential to transition, and benefit from the effort in the long term as it is endowed with significant energy resources. The continent’s estimated geothermal potential is more than 15GW, while exploitable hydropower is about 12 percent of the world totals, and could generate over 1, 800TWh of electricity annually. The Grand Inga Hydropower site in the Democratic Republic of Congo alone has potential capacity of 42GW.
With the current falling costs of the renewable energy technology, Africa has a chance to take part in the renewable energy revolution taking place cross the world, as characterised by the largest ever increase in renewable power capacity, the increase in investment, and an advance in enabling technologies. Such a transition not only supports climate protection but also offers numerous economic benefits. The ongoing transition raises various questions about the future of countries like Botswana and regions like Southern Africa that rely heavily on the production, processing and export of fossil fuels, given that the economic relevance of renewable energy and energy efficient industries is growing.
“The shift towards renewables makes economic sense,” said Francesco La Camera, Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which is a global intergovernmental organisation that supports governments in their transition to a sustainable energy future. “By mid-century, the global economy would be larger, and jobs created in the energy sector would boost global employment by 0.2 percent,” he said during the launch of IRENA’s Global Energy Transformation: A Roadmap to 2050 report, at the BETD.
“The energy transformation is gaining momentum, but it must accelerate even faster,” he said pressed.
The IRENA report shows that emissions need to be reduced by 3.5 percent per year from now until 2050, with continued reductions after that time. It posits that an energy transition in line with the Roadmap 2050 would save the global economy up to USD 160 trillion cumulatively over the next 30 years in avoided health costs, energy subsidies and climate damages. Every dollar spent on the transition the report suggests will pay off up to seven times, and that the global economy would grow by 2.5 percent in 2050. However climate damages can lead to significant socioeconomic losses.
For Africa to play a significant role, despite that fact that it contributes only 1.8 percent to the global green-house gas emissions, the African Union is developing guidelines and policies to accelerate energy transitions, creating an enabling environment where both public and private sector can be involved.
“By developing effective energy efficiency policies and implementing minimum standard and labelling, Africa can save more than USD175 billion for all electricity consumed in Africa over the next ten years,” said Abou-Zeid. Expounding that, environmental pollution savings would amount to the equivalent emissions of 50 large coal fired power stations.
In Africa, over 90 percent of the population without access to electricity live in rural areas, far from national grids, hence AU’s guidelines and policies will help fast track the implementation of distributed energy systems, especially mini grids. The AU is committed to the Paris Climate Agreement as seen by the establishment of the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative, and the bioenergy programme to support countries with high bioenergy consumption on the continent.
All the initiatives the AU is undertaking will help Africa benefit from the energy transition, as the continent will develop a competitive energy market which is crucial for the overall competitiveness of the continent on the global stage. As is, countries like Germany are looking forward to doing business with North African countries, buying access solar produced electricity by them, as Africa has more days of sunlight.
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