Climate justice
activist organizations, 350Africa.org and WoMin African Alliance, commissioned
the research for Renewable Energy in Africa: An opportunity in a time of
crisis before the COVID-19 health pandemic swept across the globe, to map
out Africa’s ambition towards dealing with the continent’s other crisis - its
energy crisis.
COVID-19 is
exacerbating existing developmental issues like access to energy, bringing to
attention the need to develop renewable energy as part of a just recovery from
the pandemic.
With the ongoing
impacts of COVID-19 impacting lives and livelihoods, governments are searching
for solutions.
While some countries
have made commitments to increasing their energy coming from renewable sources,
there is abundant potential for more to be done. This will not only support
decentralised, homegrown development, but will also assist communities across
the continent to counter the impacts of the virus and future shocks.
Importantly, for
renewable energy to be a success in Africa, the rights and collective decisions
of local communities have to be taken into consideration.
The report shows that
by 2030 renewable energy installations are projected to go up to over 77GW.
This is a massive increase from the less than 15GW currently operating.
However, by 2030 coal
will still have a 43% share of installed energy capacity in Africa. The uptake
of renewable energy technologies in the form of geothermal, solar, ocean wave,
wind and small hydro, thus falls far short of that of fossil fuels, including
diesel and fossil gas installations.
In the context of the
global climate, ecological and health crises, more ambitious plans are needed
from African governments to leapfrog dirty energy and secure people’s access to
clean energy.
“Renewable energy is
already well suited to Africa. Many people live out of reach of centralised
grids, however in a continent rich in wind, hydro and solar resources, they
should be easily deployed to meet the needs of these unserved and underserved
populations,” said Landry Ninteretse,
the Regional Team Lead for 350Africa.org.
The report, which maps
renewable energy projects across ten African countries (Botswana, DRC, Egypt,
Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda), shows that
where issues have been encountered with renewable energy, they are largely due
to the implementation of the projects.
The hugely detrimental
impacts of the operation of fossil fuel plants to people and the environment
are absent. However, the problems in implementation of large renewable energy
projects can mirror those of fossil fuel projects. The report therefore
highlights the importance of community participation and consent in the
planning of the project, agreement on community benefits including having
access and right to the energy produced and the opportunity and ability of the
community to own all or part of the project.
Trusha Reddy, Head of WoMin’s Energy and Climate Justice Programme noted that “where renewable energy projects
are sited and constructed, it should be done in a way that reduces negative
impacts. In constructing renewable energy, we need to be sensitive to the
ecological and community impacts - particularly those of women, and to ensure
the benefits are shared equitably. We also need to be wary of blindly following
an industrial model of renewable energy development which involves massive
destructive mining of minerals for components. Different models should be
explored.”
Globally, there has
been a significant push to move to renewable energy, as it has the potential of
not only transforming the lives of millions but is kinder to the planet.
However, in order for
renewable energy to be truly transformative it needs to reach the energy
and economically poor; the move to 100% clean energy should avoid the old
models of energy generation that have denied people access to energy and have
resulted in land grabs, environmental destruction, pollution and above all the
fueling of climate change.
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