According to Dr Lite Nartey, Affiliate Professor of Strategy, INSEAD, Heathrow Airport in the UK currently uses more energy than the entire West African country, Sierra Leone. Africa accounts for less than 4% of all global greenhouse gas emissions, but many of the continent’s countries face significant threats from climate change. These include increased droughts, floods, heat waves, potential crop failures and millions starving to due lack of food.
Negative Impacts on Africa
It is reported that climate change costs Africa US$5 billion to US$7 billion annually, a figure projected to reach US$50 billion by 2030. Estimates suggest its impact could push 50 million Africans below the poverty line, while 100 million are already at risk of being displaced. At the same time, 600 million people in Africa still lack access to energy, fundamental for economic development, proving that environmental protection and economic growth go hand-in-hand.
Tackling these twin sustainable development issues; meeting the needs of the present without negatively impacting on the future and economic growth in Africa is paramount. It was a central theme at the first African Climate Summit, held in Nairobi, during September 2023. Nartey says these challenges are typically regarded as being diametrically opposed and discussed in isolation. She is calling for this conversation to change.
“We must acknowledge that sustainable development and economic growth are interdependent, one cannot occur without the other. Based on my research into the role of multinational firms in development of emerging markets over the last decade, are debates which miss the point and not answering questions facing many commodity-rich African countries – do they use their natural resources for development which negatively the environment, or is an alternative sought to acknowledge the fact that that sustainable development and economic growth are interdependent?” Dr Nartey asks.
Africa’s Natural Resources
The continent is hugely dependent on extraction of natural resources for its economy, including oil and gas and minerals such as copper, cobalt, gold and diamonds. 45 African economies are already reliant on commodity exports, including fossil fuels. But during COP meetings, they are facing increasing pressure to rethink this potentially lucrative revenue stream.
“Rather than simplistic arguments that all extractive engagement is bad, the question which really needs to be asked is how to extract resources while causing minimal damage to the environment” – Dr Lite Nartey
Africans demand the same economic opportunities already enjoyed by those in the global north. But Dr Nartey stresses that this is exactly the problem. To achieve this, the most obvious solution is to adopt the economic development model employed by developed countries. That means exploiting the large and relatively untapped natural resources within their borders.
Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, was quoted at Africa Energy Week 2023, asking where’s justice when using fossil fuels which Africans cannot use anyway. In his highly charged speech he said developed countries want to keep Africa in underdevelopment. To supply developed nations, many African countries are party to this travesty, using their natural materials for them instead of for their own their economic development.
Africa can become a green industrial hub if it uses its renewable energy resources sustainably and could even lead the decarbonisation movement. African governments and companies need to find better ways to extract resources while causing minimal damage to the environment.
This is already happening, with mining firms such as the Bill Gates-backed Kobold Metals, using artificial intelligence to predict the location of deposits, minimising the negative environmental effects of test drilling. Other firms are also exploring the potential of keyhole mining technology to reduce the need for open mines with its serious environmental impact.
Challenges
A green revolution is expensive and cost much money, innovation and the latest technology to succeed, addressing the unique needs of individual countries and even individual people.
Green technology has been designed, tested and implemented in developed nations. Solar energy only works if a country has a reliable and extensive energy grid for storing and effectively distributing the generated energy. It is not so practical when applied to a nation emerging from a period of civil war and has a limited, damaged or non-existent energy network such as Sudan is facing.
In Nigeria, the installation of solar streetlights is a great idea and uses technology that works elsewhere. Yet it has been ineffective in practice and this is not an isolated case.
A 2017 research paper revealed some of the common causes of failure for renewable energy initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa. The study analysed 29 publicly funded projects across ten countries, ranging from electrification of public institutions and solar street lighting to micro-grid rural electrification.
The research found that common factors contributing to failure included political agendas, flaws and corruption in tender project awarding, insufficient stakeholder cooperation, as well as issues in project planning and implementation. The lack of effective maintenance and challenges related to public acceptance and inclusion, underline the importance of differing contexts.
Time and Money
Large sustainable solutions such as wind farms, public transport networks or geothermal plants are not attainable through an African lens. In most developing countries energy needs to be localised and immediate just as finding wood to cook an evening meal. Mega projects take time and those who need energy now do not have that luxury.
Huge external investment for these projects is needed. The Nairobi Declaration, signed at the Africa Climate Summit in September 2023, called for an almost six-fold increase in renewable energy capacity across the continent. However, a Climate Policy 2022 Initiative report shows that Africa has received only 12% of the finance needed to address climate change related impacts, the result of concerns about the high risk of investing in Africa.
Engaging All Stakeholders
Green development benefits should include as many local stakeholders as possible; apart from governments, companies must share this responsibility.
The country differences in how people obtain food, shelter and energy, can be vast, let alone across various different ones. One plan won’t necessarily work for everyone. “Too often companies are misguided in their assumptions about what stakeholders want and need to make their lives better,” says Dr Nartey.
Very few people in developing countries will buy an eco-friendly cooking stove because it is better for the environment; they will buy it if it makes their life easier. “The only way to understand people’s needs is to bring them into the process from the start. Firms need to design products and develop solutions that are sustainable, but most of all, they also must be practical and meet specific needs”, she says.
New Sustainable Paths
Having just one model for sustainable economic development is not an option, but regional and local challenges should be considered while listening to the voices of the people and different stakeholders, while understanding that sustainable development means different things to different people.
