The precarious situation of many African countries, especially those whose economies depends wholly on petroleum came to the fore yesterday during a forum in New York. This came as President of African Development Bank President (AfDB) Dr. Akinwumi Adesina unveiled ambitious plans to scrap coal power stations across the continent of Africa and switch to renewable energy. This unveiling took place at the United Nations climate talks early this week. While addressing leaders and officials from almost 200 countries in New York, on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Dr. Adesina outlined efforts to shutter coal-fired power plants and build the “largest solar zone in the world” in the arid Sahel belt. He noted that coal is the past, and renewable energy is the future, saying that the African Development Bank is getting out of coal.
This development according to Dr. Adesina is in line with the Bank’s $500 million green baseload scheme which will be rolled out in 2020 and is set to yield $5 billion of investment that will help African countries transition from coal and fossil fuel to renewable energy. He also talked about plans for $20 billion of investments in solar and clean energy that would provide the region’s 250 million people with 10,000 MW of electricity.
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The United Nations Climate Summit was attended by presidents, princes and government ministers from around the world as they faced mounting pressure to reduce heat-trapping gas emissions and slow the global rise in temperatures. The UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres also warned of the “dying fossil fuel industry” and said it was still not too late to keep the global rise in temperatures below the benchmark figure of 1.5 degrees Celsius. The UN Scribe added that it will require fundamental transformations in all aspects of society on “how we grow food, use land, fuel our transport and power our economies”.
This is coming at a time many African countries are discovering new oil and gas deposits and exploration activities are going on at frenzied speed, to that effect, analysts say that Africa is in a very tight spot as many of them are presently focusing on growing their economies on fosil fuel at a time renewable energy and most especially electric vehicles are fast becoming the order of the day.
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The UN says mankind must reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming to about 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures to stave off the worst-case predictions of scientists. The Summit was part of the run-up to the international climate talks in 2020, which is the next deadline for countries to make significant emissions reduction pledges under the 2015 global warming deal.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.