With the thirty-sixth ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State of the African Union (AU) held in Ethiopia over the weekend of February 18 and 19, civil society organizations (CSOs) have called for the AU to play a more ambitious role in creating a fossil fuel-free energy future in Africa.
CSOs have begun circulating a report titled “The Fossil Fuel Fallacy” to heads of state and ministers attending the AU meeting. The paper describes how the expansion of gas production in Africa allegedly undermines almost all elements of development, including increasing the risk of stranded assets and expensive energy, encouraging foreign ownership of African resources , the creation of fewer jobs and widespread damage to health and livelihoods.
The report, initially launched by CSO Don’t Gas Africa, in cooperation with its partner CSO Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, at the twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties, held in Egypt last year, claims that enthusiasm for gas-based energy generation is a short-sighted strategy to profit from the energy crisis, where the fossil fuel industry has been accused of misappropriating the language of climate justice to legitimize the large-scale expansion of fossil fuels in Africa.
“Instead of selling the rights to extract fossil fuels to large multinational companies, African leaders should invest in clean and renewable energy that will directly benefit people across the continent without harming their health,” the campaign lead Don ‘t Gas Africa. Dean Bhekumuzi Bhebhe said
The AU summit presents an opportunity for Africa to expand access to energy and accelerate the transition to clean and renewable energy. However, the AU summit could also be used to consolidate dependence on fossil fuels.
Some CSOs have said they are concerned about a proposal by the Ministers of Energy and Infrastructure for an African “common position” on energy.
According to these CSOs, they believe they have demonstrated that this proposal will not adequately address energy access and transition goals, nor do they believe the proposal is consistent with the Paris Agreement’s warming limit of 1, 5 °C above pre-industrial levels and the current African Community. Position on Climate Change.
CSOs believe the proposal risks further increasing global warming and is inconsistent with Africa’s broader development goals, jeopardizing Agenda 2063 and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
A letter expressing these concerns, signed by more than 300 CSOs, has received no recognition from the AU, the organizations said.
“We urge African leaders to co-create a just development path together with African peoples that is clean, pan-African and promotes people’s regenerative economies away from fossil fuels,” said the Africa Coordinator Climate Movements Building Space. Lorena Chiponda said
CSOs believe the upcoming AU summit offers African leaders an opportunity to define and establish a common narrative that will call for a rapid transition to people-centered clean and renewable energy for the continent.
CSOs have collectively called for a rejection of the alleged false promises of fossil gas, including job creation, increased energy access and the transition to renewable energy.
“There is no place for fossil gas expansion in Africa’s energy transition, as it would deplete resources for renewable energy and dull any hope for the transition.
“We urge African leaders to reject the push for gas production in Africa and instead galvanize the resources of developed nations to support the community-centered, accessible, renewable, vital clean energy systems to achieve a just energy transition in the region,” said the regional director of 350Africa.org. Landry Ninteretse said
CSOs do not believe that the expansion of gas production will lead to increased job opportunities. Rather, they said employment in fossil fuel production was expected to decline by about 75% by 2050 in a “well below” 2°C warming scenario, with most job losses of work related to the decrease in the production of fossil fuels upstream.
Second, the expansion of gas production would allegedly not improve access to energy for some 600 million Africans who are currently without it. Plans to increase gas production are mainly for export deals with Europe, and such plans could take up to two decades to come into effect, CSOs argued.
The concern is that this strategy sends African energy and profits overseas while simultaneously failing to address the immediate energy needs of Africans. Conversely, CSOs believe that investments in renewable energy could be implemented within months and will start providing energy directly to people this year.
Africa’s wind power potential alone is enough to meet current electricity demand 250 times over, they claimed.
Third, the expansion of gas production was not seen by CSOs as a step towards investing in a transition fuel for renewable energy. Rather, these investments were said to compete with funding that could go directly to the development of decentralized, clean and affordable renewable energy systems.
“The expansion of gas production does not help our transition into the future; rather, it continues to entrench us in the past”, said the collective.
