President William Ruto said yesterday that Africa’s renewable energy potential, which is more than 50 times the world’s cumulative demand by 2030, is yet to be tapped.
The President who is the Chair of the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC) noted that the continent’s untapped solar and wind potential is rated as ‘super-abundant’ in most African countries, with a potential of over 1,000 times the current demand.
However, speaking during the Pan-African Parliament Summit on Climate Policy and Equity in South Africa, Ruto said the continent still lags behind in access to energy. “Nearly 600 million Africans lack access to electricity, while another 150 million have highly unreliable access, and 900 million more have no access to clean cooking energy,” remarked the President.
Ruto said the primary cause of Africa’s minimal investment in exploiting its abundant green energy potential is the lack of energy-intense anchor, which would make investment in additional energy generation capacity bankable, and render universal energy access possible.
“The fact that Africa’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions is minimal at only 4 per cent, yet the impact of consequent climate change on our people is huge. The discourse also mainly focuses on these important questions,” stated the President.
At the same time, he noted that achieving the net-zero emissions by 2050 will be extremely difficult, if not altogether impossible, for the world’s industrialised nations and fast-growing emerging economies to achieve net-zero goals on time .
Meanwhile, Ruto expressed his displeasure about the treatment of African Heads saying they are sometimes mistreated during global gatherings. “We have these meetings, Africa-US, Africa-Europe, Africa-Turkey, now we are waiting for Africa-Russia and Africa-Japan. We have decided that it is not intelligent for 54 of us to go and sit before one gentleman from another place., Sometimes we are mistreated, we are loaded into busses like school children and it is not right,” he said. Ruto had earlier said that African heads of state are most of the time not given a platform to explain their issues in-depth.
Additionally, the President urged the representatives to join him in articulating a Pan- African principle that’s encourages the development of sustainable,green industry.
Source; Renewable energy
