Should Africa put citizens above the climate crisis?
THE Global North is relentlessly prioritising national interests over cooperative efforts to cut global warming. Africa must do the same.
This means Africa must chart its own path towards a transition to renewable energy that is financially viable and serves the interests of its citizens.
Recent developments in Europe show that for the rich industrial world, the quest to decarbonise their economies has been relegated to second place behind the geopolitics of energy security.
Last year, at COP26 in Glasgow, the EU and the US were adamant that coal was enemy number one.
Everything changed after Moscow launched its war on Ukraine and Western states hit back with sanctions. As soon as Russia threatened to cut gas supplies to Germany, politicians there and in other European nations recommissioned thermal power stations to boost their national grids
Coal sales from South Africa to Europe rose eightfold during the first six months of 2022 compared with last year. Despite this U-turn, there has not been any significant fallout between governments, industry and civil society in Germany or other European states.
Robert Habeck, a politician in Germany’s pro-environment Green Party, said the decision was “…bitter, but the situation just makes it necessary,” adding that it would lead to “slightly higher” emissions.
Nuclear reactors
Initially, the Green Party had signed up for a coalition that planned to phase out nuclear energy by the end of 2022 and coal by 2030. Germany’s nuclear energy industry has also been given a shot in the arm, as have some of Africa’s uranium producers.
According to the head of the International Energy Agency, (IEA), “Japan’s restart of nuclear reactors will help Europe’s winter energy supply”.
Sweden’s decision to follow the Japanese lead looks to have been inspired by the same market opportunities and geopolitical interests.
What can we take from this as a guiding principle to negotiations at the COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh this month?
African governments should come to grips with the fact that the EU’s short and medium-term geopolitical goals count for much more than the 1.5 Celsius ‘North Star’ – that is the goal of keeping average global temperatures to less than 1.5C above preindustrial levels.
African leaders would do well to be equally pragmatic and overlook science-at least for now.
European states’ interim goals for protecting national economies and political parties take priority at the climate summits over rhetorical exhortations to save the environment.
Despite the adverse environmental impacts of the switch back to coal, many European
governments changed their energy mix overnight.
The notion that global warming poses an existential threat cannot be something that European politicians really believe – in light of the decisions they made when it came to choosing coal over nuclear power.
African leaders would do well to be equally pragmatic and overlook science-at least for now.
Look at the implications of the recent crude oil price uptick on debates on decarbonisation and how it shifted policy priorities and corporate strategy across the globe.
Oil prices and inflation
Oil prices had been rising prior to the Ukraine war, but the war pushed them as high as $130 a barrel during the first quarter of 2022.
That delivered massive profits for oil producers and boosted revenues enabling governments and companies to invest in renewables.
However, the higher prices increased inflation because their impact wasn’t confined to crude oil by-products, but also raised transport costs, pushing up the price of goods and services across the world.
As host to many of the world’s poorest people, Africa will bear the brunt of the adverse effects.
How did governments
North react?
In Britain and in the
Global the EU, lawmakers begrudged international oil companies their massive profits and demanded a share of the spoils through windfall taxes.
In the US, President Joe Biden called upon oil producers in and outside the US to ramp up production to bring down gasoline prices, but the response was lukewarm.
Writing to the big oil companies he argued that “….at a time of war, refinery profit margins well above normal being passed directly onto American families are not acceptable”.
An insightful and even more self-serving response came from the Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco. The Kingdom was not content with higher prices so tried to profit further by buying crude cheaply from Russia (thanks to Western sanctions) while selling its own crude exports at market prices and pocketing the difference.
Unsurprisingly, Saudi Arabia had no appetite to indulge the wishes of the White House that it should boost production to bring down world prices.
R&D technology for clean energy
Having been at the receiving end of investor activism, NGOs and policymakers’ pressure, big oil companies have finally heeded the call and are using profits to invest hugely in investments in R&D technology for clean energy or takeover of renewable energy startups.
In June, the London Financial Timers said: “BP takes 40% stake in [a] vast $30bn Australian renewables project”. — Reuters.