CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Africa needs time
and money to wean itself off fossil fuels in order to achieve net zero without
jeopardizing its future, its representatives are warning ahead of next month’s
climate talks.
اضافة اعلان
At energy conferences this week, Ghana, South
Africa, and the
African Union (AU) have insisted the continent stands by net
zero — the goal of an overall balance in heat-stoking greenhouse gases.
But they warned that the continent was still heavily
dependent on coal, oil and gas to power its development.
“Africa is fully convinced and committed to a net
zero and supportive of the climate agenda. However, where we may differ is on
the timeframe,” AU ENERGY Commissioner Amani Abou-Zeid told AFP on the
sidelines of the Green Energy Africa Summit in Cape Town.
Africa’s population of 1.3 billion is set to double
by 2050, and AU nations aim to make affordable and reliable energy available to
everyone by 2063, she argued.
Funding for Africa’s green transition is likely to
be a flashpoint at the COP27 climate summit, running in the Egyptian resort of
Sharm el-Sheikh from November 6–18.
Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, rich nations pledged
$100 billion a year to help developing countries limit climate change.
But they have so far failed to meet the promise —
and prospects have been further clouded this year by the resounding economic
impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine.
‘Not in our interest’
Ghana’s deputy energy
minister Mohammed Amin Adam said international green energy investment in
Africa was “still appalling”, accounting only for about two percent of the
global total.
At the same time,
African countries also need to secure financing for oil and gas projects, as
fossil fuel revenue is needed to finance climate adaptation measures, he told
AFP.
Adam pointed to data showing that most of Africa’s
oil and gas producers depended greatly on export revenue derived by these
fuels.
“If we give up this, how do we even finance our
ability to adapt to the climate effects? We cannot. Unless we have a substitute
for our revenue,” he said.
African countries are among the most exposed to the
impacts of climate change, especially worsening droughts and floods, but
responsible for only around three percent of global
CO2 emissions, former UN
chief Ban Ki-moon said last month.
S. African coal
Speaking at an Africa Oil
Week event in Cape Town, South African Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said
ditching coal too quickly was not in the country’s best interests, as it would
damage the economy and cost thousands of jobs.
South Africa is the continent’s main coal producer
and consumer — as well as one of the world’s top 12 carbon emitters.
Last year, the government secured pledges of $8.5
billion loans and grants from a group of rich nations to finance the transition
to greener alternatives.
But the deal is hanging in the balance, amid fraught
negotiations with donor countries around how the money should be spent.
“When developed economies come to us and say ‘part
of the $8.5 billion is going to be spent on accelerating the exit of coal’, I
feel that is not in our interest,” Mantashe said.
At pre-COP27 talks in Kinshasa this week, the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) fended off demands to abandon oil and gas
blocks that it has put up for auction in environmentally sensitive areas.
The DRC launched bids in July for 30 blocks in the
Congo Basin, sparking fears that drilling could release carbon dioxide trapped
for millennia in the peaty forest floor.
But DRC Environment Minister Eve Bazaiba, opening
the talks on Monday, asked if the government should let children die rather
than harvest from its fossil resources.
“As much as we need oxygen, we also need bread,” she
said.
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