African nations united in message to COP27
African countries are heading to the COP27 climate conference in Egypt next month with one voice: they won’t transition to cleaner energy at the expense of their people or follow an agenda set by the developed world.
Ministers and leaders from several countries on the continent attending the annual Africa Oil Week conference in Cape Town this week acknowledged the need to move to low-carbon energy, but are adamant they won’t be dictated to by Western countries, which built their economies on fossil fuels.
They noted that in the past two decades, Africa’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions fluctuated between just 3% and 4% — the smallest share among all the world’s regions.
Climate change is arguably the most pressing issue facing the planet. More than 70 countries, including China, the US and the EU — the world’s biggest polluters — have agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible by 2050, a target known as net zero. If successful, the target would cover about three-quarters of global emissions, according to the UN.
“Africa’s lack of energy means it has to utilise all forms of its abundant and untapped energy resources,” said Amani Abou-Zeid, the AU commissioner for infrastructure and energy. “The estimates are that we need to quadruple efforts if we are to reach universal access to energy. It is a difficult path ahead of us. Now is not the time for picking and choosing how we are going to get there.”
Even if all available resources were used, including fossil fuels, the continent’s emissions would not exceed 3.5% of the global total, Abou-Zeid said.
“This is a figure that needs to be remembered before anyone starts lecturing or preaching to Africa about emissions or how it must reduce its footprint. When we use all the resources at our disposal, we are still doing it with a very low carbon footprint,” she added.
“Our ambition is simply to have fastgrowing economies that are competitive and industrialised.”
South African minister of mineral resources & energy Gwede Mantashe told delegates that demands for Africa to abandon fossil fuels sat uncomfortably with energy poverty.
“We do not have enough energy. It’s that simple,” he said. The priority is to meet the continent’s needs rather than trying to pacify developed countries or environmental groups, he added.
“I see the protests outside this venue that say fossil fuel is a killer, but I can tell you that hunger kills faster,” Mantashe said.
Developed countries were quick to point out that Africa needed to move away from fossil fuels, yet when facing energy crises were only too happy to rely on Africa’s coal, he added.
“In South Africa, we have seen the increase of coal purchased from the EU growing eightfold. As they take our coal, they at the same time tell us to move out of it quickly,” he said. “That is a contradiction.”
Ibrahim Matola, Malawi’s minister of energy, said hungry people knew no law. “You cannot come to Africa with your bottled water and tell us we cannot have any water,” he said.
Omar Farouk Ibrahim, secretary-general of the African Petroleum Producers’ Organisation, said the obligation was first and foremost to bring the continent out of poverty. Doing that would include using oil and natural gas and the continent was not planning to bypass resources it had in abundance, he said.
That view was echoed by Ugandan energy & mineral development minister Ruth Nankabirwa, who said African countries have no intention of abolishing investment in oil and natural gas, even if it is opposed by the international community at large.
“It’s like you are asking Africa to be poor,” she said.
Claude Illy, energy sector leader for SubSaharan Africa at auditing, financial and advisory firm Deloitte, said the energy crisis in Europe in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “has demonstrated that the energy transition cannot and will not happen overnight. It will be a gradual process that should benefit both Africa and the developed world. Any transition plan needs to meet international objectives but also satisfy the agenda of African countries that have the right to develop their natural gas and oil resources.”
Mantashe said African governments were not denying the need for an energy transition, but taking developmental needs into account “it must be managed systematically. It must include the use of gas and renewable energy and other energy sources, while scaling down the over-reliance on coal.”
He said the transition to low-carbon economies would have to be sustainable and ensure energy security, job security and economic growth. Oil and natural gas were a sure way to accelerate and guarantee affordable change, he added.
According to Illy, moving to natural gas is the only viable solution to deal with SA’s energy crisis. “The government should do everything in its power to help recover the two offshore [gas] resources, Brulpadda and Luiperd. These projects are potential gamechangers ... Monetising these resources as quickly as possible makes sense for the country.”
Gas discoveries in Namibia and Mozambique have the potential to address energy shortages, he said.
French energy company TotalEnergies suspended a $20bn liquefied natural gas export project in northern Mozambique in March 2021 after attacks linked to Islamic State, but is expected to make a decision by March 2023 to resume work.
Mozambique’s Antonio Saide, vice-minister of mineral resources & energy, said regional energy partnerships were the key to developing the continent’s oil and natural gas assets. “We should not just be looking at our internal demand but how we can improve regional integration working together to solve the energy crisis.”
“Africa is not the one polluting, yet we are suffering and expected to reduce our emission impact,” Saide said.