There are a plethora of
articles, papers and stories written on how renewable energy technologies and
energy efficiency measures can assist address the numerous energy challenges
facing many countries in Africa. Curiously and worryingly however, the rationale
for promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency in national energy
policies is not well disseminated while the debate on the low carbon energy
access agenda continues to be very donor driven leaving domestic governments to
play a regulatory and policy-setting role. This partly explains why the
business-as-usual approach in the energy sector is still followed across much
of the landscape.
National energy
policies for most countries in sub-Saharan Africa tend to mainly concentrate on
conventional energy systems (i.e. electricity and petroleum) which serve a
smaller proportion of the populace at the expense of small-scale renewable
energy options, which serve the bulk of the population, but receive limited
budgetary (and policy) support. Since renewables and energy efficiency are now
among the priority options to increase the provision of modern energy services
to the bulk of the population, it is often being driven by climate change and
environmental drivers that do not resonate in Africa. As a result, renewables
and energy efficiency development has been ad hoc and not explicitly linked to
national energy plans.
Stressing the
environmental benefits of renewable energy will not be entirely effective in
engendering support for renewable energy and energy efficiency in the region. The
African region is not yet a major emitter of greenhouse gases associated with
climate change, implying the beneficial case of renewable energy and energy
efficiency systems narrative is likely to be more successful if advanced on the
basis of their socio-economic benefits and long-term cost advantages. Likewise,
reframing the debate from cutting emissions to rapidly scaling up renewable
energy in confronting climate change will go along way in attracting the level
of investment or policy commitment needed for widespread adoption of all
forms of renewable energy.
The upcoming Fifth
International Forum on Energy for Sustainable Development to be held in
Hammamet, Tunisia, on 4-6 November 2014 will see a new UN Development Account
(UNDA) project “Promoting Renewable Energy Investments for
Climate Change Mitigation and Sustainable Development” launched by the Economic and Social Commission for
Western Asia (ESCWA) and the United Nations Economic Commission for
Europe (UNECE). It will further advance the
implementation of the regional and continental initiatives already on the
ground for further utilization of renewable energy in Africa.
The need to improve
modern energy services for the poor particularly in the sub-Saharan Africa
region where it is acute needs to be accompanied by demystifying the case for
renewable energy and energy efficiency whose support on the whole appears
luke-warm. Only then will initiatives such as the formation of an Africa
Clean Energy Corridor to help leap frog the continent to
renewable energy will effectively make our economies more competitive as others
across the developing world markets. African countries need it to lift its population
out of massive energy poverty and achieve sustainable economic development.
