Firstly, United States climate envoy John Kerry has cautioned against investing in long-term gas projects in Africa as countries wrestle with powering their development with clean energy.
Over the next few years, gas will replace coal or replaces oil. It can be used as a transition to cleaner energy sources. But after 2030, it will be essential to capture the emissions from gas too.
Kerry.
Secondly, continued financing of oil and gas projects in Africa has become a vital issue for the countries, which they plan to push during a United Nations climate summit in Egypt in November.
Thirdly, Senegal and other countries in the region aim to start producing oil and gas, which they hope will help boost their electricity production and power industries and curb energy poverty.
Energy lack
Moreover, more than 600 million people, or 43 percent of Africa’s population, lack access to electricity, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the International Energy Agency.
Additionally, African countries argue that they need investments to develop their energy resources, including oil and gas, and a pledge by developed nations, including the US, last year to curb investments in fossil fuels was unjust.
However, the question now is how to help the nations, which account for only a small amount of carbon emissions, develop without making mistakes that others made, enabling them to be as green as possible without creating more problems.
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Gas projects
Also, Kerry said the viability of long-term gas projects could become a problem beyond 2030, the target date many developed nations have set to move to primarily renewable energy sources and curb the need for gas.
In addition, such long-term projects likely would not recoup their investments within ten years, adding that some countries are talking of projects with a lifespan as long as 40 years, which was unnecessary.
We do not have to rush to go backward; we need to be very careful about how much we will deploy, how it will be paid for, over what period, and how we capture the emissions.
Kerry.
Help for African countries
Finally, developed nations must step up efforts and meet the urgency to help other countries adapt and overcome the initial hurdles of developing renewable energy systems. The US has committed $12bn for “adaptation and resilience” and was working on a new structure to bring more investors with trillions of dollars.
