AfDB must stop its fossil fuels fallacy in Africa

This year’s annual meeting of the African Development Bank Group comes at a critical time in Africa. The convening in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt, this month is happening on the back of the bank’s shocking announcement at last year’s COP27 that gas will play a huge role in the continent’s energy future.

The decision was a build-up of the controversial African Common Position on Energy Access and Transition proposed by a ministerial technical committee of the African Union, effectively laying the ground for further fossil fuel expansion on the continent.

The title of the proposal sounds marvellous. In essence, though, the position is devoid of any significant proposal to either expand renewable energy or to decentralize energy access.

By explicitly stating that gas will continue to feature in the continent’s energy mix in the foreseeable future, it appears, instead, that the proposal represents the interests of the fossil fuel industry.

Coal is the past. Renewable energy is the future

Coal is the past. Renewable energy is the future. These are the words of the African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina at a United Nations Climate Action Summit in 2019. Ironically, though, the bank has yet to implement a fossil fuel finance exclusion policy. Instead, the institution has committed to more gas developments across the continent.

But it is the bank’s decision to limit CSOs’ participation in its 2023 annual general meeting that is the sorest mockery to the continent’s energy transition efforts. Why is AfDB overlooking the oversight and advisory role of the civil society in Africa’s affairs and its future? Lack of a strong CSO presence in its meetings is suspicious. Does the bank believe in the spirit of accountability and participatory governance?

CSOs play a vital role in representing the concerns and aspirations of communities affected by the bank’s projects. Excluding them and other stakeholders stifles the spirit of diversity and undermines the credibility of the decision-making process.

The bank has, pointedly, shut down a space dedicated to civil society before, which gives the impression that exclusion is its modus operandi. A case in point is during Glasgow’s COP26 where the AfDB cancelled a side event where African civil society groups were set to present their demands, calling for an end to fossil fuel investments on the continent.

AfDB’s fossil fuels fallacy

If it maintains its stance on Gas, the African Development Bank’s AGM risks turning its agenda into a fossil fallacy that keeps Africa entrapped in the dirty energy regime and poverty rather than transforming the continent through clean and affordable energy for shared prosperity and sustainability.

It is critical that Africa cultivates increased investments in its abundant renewable energy wealth to accelerate worthwhile and equitable development. African governments and their development partners have a sacred responsibility to end energy poverty on the continent in a manner that stimulates sustainable and equitable development while making contributions to the fight against the climate crisis.

Gas expansion in Africa does not foster local ownership and democratic control. It only puts Africa’s energy systems at risk of foreign ownership and dictations. In Senegal, for instance, the majority stake of the first phase of the Sangomar oil and gas field is owned by Australian oil and gas giant Woodside.

Woodside owns nearly 69 percent equity compared to Senegal’s state-owned oil company, Petrosen that has just 18 percent. Even more astonishingly, Woodside will command a staggering 82 percent stake of the project’s second phase.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has stated that there is no need ‘‘for investment in new fossil fuel supply’’ beyond projects that had already been committed as of 2021. IEA notes that there are no new oil and gas fields approved for development ‘‘in our pathway and no new coal mines or mine extensions are required.’’ So, what is the point in this renewed pursuit for fossil fuels when scientific evidence notes that we do not need them for the safety of the planet?

Call to Action

The ongoing climate emergency demands that Africa urgently shifts away from dependence on fossil fuel-based energy generation and transitions quickly towards a renewable energy future. With the climate crisis pummeling our people and planet, the just transition to renewable energy has never been more urgent and crucial.

We need a transformative, people-led process involving radical and rapid socioeconomic and political change to achieve energy democracy and to deliver renewable energy assets to the hands of people and communities across the continent.

The message is clear: Don’t! Gas! Africa!