Can China Solve Africa’s Energy Crisis with Green Energy?

Aglobal crisis in climate change is a challenge every country will have to face. China has chosen to step up as the leader of the fight against the rise in atmospheric temperature, after the United States withdrew from the Paris Agreement, and has over many years invested billions into green development projects. Africa, a continent with a rapidly growing population, is in an energy crisis as many nations fail to meet their domestic demand.

Commitment from China to invest into renewable energy and green projects in Africa can alleviate the continent’s energy crisis, but is China still fossil fuel-focused or can they truly be the leaders in renewable energy?

African nations continue to suffer from regular power outages and lack of energy supply, as over 600 million African citizens do not have access to affordable and reliable energy. The lack of stable energy supply on the continent is a factor influencing growing poverty levels of many nations.

While there is growing investment in Africa’s energy sector, from both domestic and foreign entities, mismanagement of resources has resulted in continued power outages and ineffective distribution of energy, particularly in rural areas of the continent. At the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-africa Cooperation, Chinese President Xi Jinping launched eight major initiatives to be implemented within Africa, one of which is a pledge to undertake 50 projects in the green development sector. Despite China being a large investor into the renewable energy industry, it is still the largest financier of coal, oil and gas projects in Africa. Between 2014 and 2017, Chinese banks provided an average of $5 billion a year for energy projects in Africa, the largest share of all G20 financiers and with almost 75 percent of the funding going toward oil and gas projects.

In 2017, China accounted for almost half of the global renewable energy investment, totaling $125.9 billion. This amount is more than double the 2013 figure of $53.3 billion, which, despite China still being a strong investor in fossil fuel projects, shows a strong commitment to achieve the goal of reducing the country’s carbon footprint. China’s investment into projects such as the Three Gorges Dam has already made the nation a world leader in hydropower since 2014, and since 2015 China has accounted for one-third of global wind-energy capacity. With China leading in these renewable sectors, the hope is that China will continue to be the sustainable solution Africa needs to address the continent’s growing energy crisis.