Why Africa need to produce more carbon in the short term to spur Economic Growth.
Africa’s energy challenges are immense. Power shortages diminish the region’s growth by 2-4 percent a year, holding back efforts to create jobs and reduce poverty.
In addition, despite a decade of growth, the power generation gap between Africa and other regions is widening.
Major sources of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities include power generation (about 25 per cent of all emissions), transport, industrial activities, deforestation and agriculture. Countries have historically varied greatly, and continue to today in the type, source and amount of greenhouse gases they emit.
The biggest emitter overall today is China, but its large population means that emissions per person (per capita) are lower than in many other countries.
Historically the United States has emitted more greenhouse gases than any other country, and today its per capita emissions are still among the highest worldwide: 100-200 times greater than per capita emissions in most African nations.
The question of who is responsible for climate change becomes complicated when consumer demand in one country increases emissions in another.
According to Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Africa’s emissions are low in both absolute and per capita terms. Total emissions for Africa increased twelve-fold between 1950 and 2008, reaching 311 million metric tons of carbon, which is still less than the emissions for some single nations including China, the United States, India, Russia, and Japan.
Although per capita emissions in 2008, at 0.32 metric tons of carbon, were three times those in Africa for 1950, they were still only 6.6 per cent of those in North America.
Research shows that emissions from all fuel sources have grown in the African region over time with liquid and solid fuels now each accounting for approximately 35 per cent and gas fuels accounting for 17 per cent of the regional total.
Global, Regional, and National Fossil-Fuel CO2 Emissions report shows that a small number of nations are largely responsible for the African emissions from fossil fuels and cement production; South Africa accounts for 38 per cent of the continental total, and another 46 per cent comes from Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Libya and Morocco combined.
These are the only six countries on the continent with annual CO2 emissions in excess of 10 million metric tons of carbon. Only four African countries have per capita CO2 emissions higher than the global average (1.3 metric ton of carbon per year): Libya (2.53), South Africa (2.39), the Seychelles (2.22), and Equatorial Guinea (1.99).
Based on 2008 per capita emission rates, 28 of the 55 African nations for which data are available have per capita emission rates less than 0.1 metric ton of carbon per person per year.
As Rose Mutisia, Energy Researcher puts it, “Imposing mitigation on the world’s poor is widening economic inequality. Africa must be allowed to produce more carbon in the short term so that we can grow while the rich has to cut their carbon emissions.”
The crucial question for Africa is; can we stave off catastrophic climate change while building the energy systems needed to power growth, create jobs, and lift millions of people out of poverty?
No region has done less to contribute to the climate crisis, but no region will pay a higher price for failure to tackle it. At the same time, over half of Africa’s population lacks access to modern energy, and African leaders have no choice but to bridge this gap urgently.
They do have a choice, though, about how to bridge the gap. The region can leapfrog over the damaging energy practices that have brought the world to the brink of catastrophe and show the world the way to a low-carbon future.
Africa stands to gain from developing low-carbon energy, and the world stands to gain from Africa avoiding the high-carbon pathway followed by today’s rich world and emerging markets.
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