“Despite the tremendous energy gaps, global policies are increasingly constraining Africa’s energy technology choices,” writes ProfOsinbajo in a guest essay for The Economist
AFRICA NEEDS more energy. Total electricity use for more than a billion people, covering all 48 sub-Saharan African countries except South Africa, is less than that used by Spain . The dearth of power hurts livelihoods and destroys the dreams of hundreds of millions of young people.. Africans need more than just lights at home. We want abundant energy at scale so as to create industrial and commercial jobs.
The Nigerian government remains committed to universal energy access, and all Nigerians deserve to enjoy the benefits of modern energy that are taken for granted in the rich world. We should aim to generate a national average power output of at least 1,000 kilowatt-hours per person which, combined with population growth, means that by 2050 we will need to generate 15 times more electricity than we do today. That ambitious goal will require vast resources.
Despite the tremendous energy gaps, global policies are increasingly constraining Africa’s energy technology choices. Rich countries, especially in Europe, have repeatedly called for African states to use only renewable power sources. This is partly because of a naive belief in leapfrogging, the assumption that, like skipping landlines for mobile phones, Africa can ‘leap’ to new energy technologies.
A promising step was announced last year in Scotland at COP26, the annual UN climate talks, when South Africa received an $8.5bn package to. It is high time to extend that kind of support to the rest of the continent. Nigeria has four times South Africa’s population and yet uses just one-eighth as much electricity. COP27 will be held in Egypt in November. Now is the ideal time to reset global policy so as to bolster Africa’s plans for producing clean energy.
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