China-Africa cooperation on energy will result in knowledge production and policy formulation to attain sustainable development and security, experts have said.
During the 2022 China-Africa Think Tanks Energy Forum on Climate Change and Energy Transition on Thursday in Nairobi, the experts said addressing climate change in Africa will create significant market opportunities on the continent, especially for the private sector and institutional investors.
The China Africa Think Tank is a forum mainly looking to curb climate change in Africa through association between China and African countries.
It meeting was hosted by the Africa Policy Institute (China-Africa Center) in partnership with the CNPC Economics and Technology Research Institute.
Africa Policy Institute CEO Prof Peter Kagwanja said, for instance, the Dakar Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2021 adopted the deliberations on climate change.
“This refocused our attention to climate change, acknowledging it as a threat to our development endevours. China and Africa have committed to work together to implement agreements on climate change,” Prof Kagwanja told the meeting.
He noted that the China Africa Institute, which is based in Beijing and launched by President Xi Jinping, incorporates African and Chinese experts to share knowledge on Africa’s development and its enablers.
In the Focac meeting in Senegal, Africa and China welcomed the Dakar Declaration on China-Africa cooperation on combating climate change and support its effective implementation.
The two sides also proposed that African countries benefit from the $230 million Kunming Biodiversity Fund. President Xi launched the kitty in 2021 to support biodiversity protection in developing countries.
Various approaches are being brought forth to help with the implementation of the Dakar declaration with regards to the adoption of renewable energy in Africa comes into a reality.
Kagwanja further noted that the Russia war in Ukraine has had an impact on Africa. “The war in Ukraine has pointed on the need for Africa and her partners to into the opportunities of Africa producing more oil and gas…. Tanzania, Mozambique, the coastal parts of Kenya and Somalia. We need to invest heavily in this to save African economy from collapse. Kenya is really facing an energy crisis,’ he said.
It was observed that climate change also provides opportunities for Africa to harness its huge resource potential to achieve the targets of the sustainable development goals.
Mozambique Ambassador to China Maria Gustava said Africa is the most vulnerable continent to climate change impacts under all climate scenarios above 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“Africa contributes only three per cent of carbon emissions, but the continent is bearing the burden of climate change,” Ambassador Gustava said in a virtual address.
She added that it is up to all stakeholders to ensure protection and conservation of the climate from human actions and lifestyle.
Center for China Studies in Abuja, Nigeria, director Dr Charles Onunaiju said climate change remains a threat to China-Africa development cooperation.
The forum came two days after President William Ruto assured Kenyans that he would steer the 100 per cent renewable energy transition by 2030.
In his inauguration speech on Tuesday, President Ruto said climate change will be key to his government’s agenda and made an ambitious pledge to ramp up clean energy and phase out fossil fuels for electricity by 2030.
“In our country, women and men, young people, farmers, workers, and local communities suffer the consequences of climate emergency.We must act urgently to keep global heating levels below 1.5 Celsius, help those in need and end addiction to fossil fuels,”Ruto said.
The President said Kenya is on a transition to clean energy that will support jobs, local economies, and the sustainable industrialization.
“We call on all African states to join us in this journey. Africa can lead the world. We have immense potential for renewable energy. Reducing costs of renewal energy technologies make this the most viable energy source,” he said.
Climate change has been rightly described as the greatest threat both to our existence and to the future of our planet.
A 2019 report commissioned by the UN Environment Programme, the African Development Bank, and the UN Economic Commission for Africa and prepared by Climate Analytics, stated that between 1960 to 2014 an estimated 1,335 disasters have occurred, resulting in damages to a value of $14.3 trillion.
Since then, climate change-related disasters have varied in scale and reach, telling of the low vulnerabilities in the continent
While Eng Stephen Kuria, chairman Mineral Rights Board, Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, observed that it's time Africa embraces renewable energy to make progress in the climate change space, Li Wentao from the Institute of African Studies said there is need for uniform climate response standards for rich and poor countries.
Kagwanja Kenya has already done well when it comes to increasing the share of renewable energy in its electricity generation mix, with its total installed electricity generation capacity increasing by 5.4% to 2,990 MW.
“Thus, in deepening China-Africa cooperation in combating climate change and energy transition, both civilizations have agreed to collectively explore different pathways for reaching a resource-efficient, low-carbon and socially inclusive economy, “ he said.
According API, China has signed approximately 14 deals on tackling climate change with about 13 African nations since 2011.
Beijing has also built more than 80 large power facilities for Africa, most of them using green energy sources, and donated equipment to help African countries cope with climate change, including more than 10,000 sets of solar photovoltaic power generation equipment.
China has, however, been accused of emitting more greenhouse gas than the entire developed world combined.
Rhodium Group in its study found that China emitted 27 per cent of the world's greenhouse gases in 2019, while the US was the second-largest emitter at 11 per cent and India third with 6.6 per cent.
