In Burkina Faso, a person uses as much electricity in a year as a Frenchman to run his microwave oven. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa (with the exception of South Africa), annual consumption per capita, at 185 kilowatt hours, is 69 times less than in the United States and 35 times less than in Europe. In Charm El-Cheikh (Egypt), COP27 hosts are thinking about producing less polluting energy. But, in Africa, it is first to produce more, just.
According to the World Bank, half of the residents of the region still do not have access to electricity. The other half must most often deal with high prices and frequent cuts. This energy deficiency is a result of ill-development as much as it nourishes it. There is therefore an urgency to change the situation if we want to end extreme poverty and reach the objective set by the UN of clean and affordable energy for all by 2030.
To achieve this, production capacities and investments should be doubled during the next decade, emphasizing renewables, recommended in June the International Energy Agency . An a priori logical path in the context of climate change and for a continent which has abundant natural resources, in particular in solar and geothermal energy. Obviously, this potential is not enough. The region thus houses only 1 % of the photovoltaic solar capacity installed in the world.
According to a Report Report Bloomberg New Energy Finance, published on the sidelines of COP27, investments in renewable energies in Africa have even fallen In 2021 at their lowest level for ten years. At 2.6 billion dollars (2.5 billion euros), they represent only 0.6 % of the amounts invested through the planet in clean energies. Worse, they fell 35 % compared to 2020, against the current of an upward trend (+ 9 %) in the rest of the world.
ardued task
Throughout the last decade, Africa and its green energy projects have attracted capital “very irregular”, indicates the report, and only four countries (Morocco, South Africa, Kenya and L ‘Egypt) captured the essentials. This bad balance sheet is due to well identified barriers: sometimes inconsistent regulatory framework, faulty deployment of electrical networks, lack of involvement of local investors …
This situation is not necessarily frozen. The region can draw inspiration from the example of countries like Brazil or Vietnam, where well -calibrated policies have made it possible to make rapid progress. The task looks difficult despite everything. While the public finances of African states have been hardly tested by the latest crises, international investors are not likely to depart from their reluctance.
In the meantime, African leaders claim their right to exploit their fossil fuels, the gas in particular, the continent of which is richly endowed. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict, upsetting the energy markets, gives them arguments. Europeans are eyeing these vast reserves to secure their supplies. But the risk is that such a rush is above all intended for rich countries, transforming Africa into “gas station in Europe”, as denounced in Charm El-Cheikh the Kenyan activist of the Mohamed Adow climate, Who calls for the fossil stage to impose the continent as a “green leader”.
gas or renewable, the priority is above all to invest capital and technologies in projects put at the service of 600 million Africans today deprived of electricity. Because the poorest are also the most vulnerable to the disruption of the climate. To be able to adapt, they must first have tools allowing them to fight against precariousness. Access to energy is the first.