{"id":7124,"date":"2022-10-31T15:05:42","date_gmt":"2022-10-31T15:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ugandaupdatenews.com\/?p=7124"},"modified":"2022-10-31T15:05:49","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T15:05:49","slug":"cop27-in-egypt-africas-chance-to-break-from-climate-colonialism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/cop27-in-egypt-africas-chance-to-break-from-climate-colonialism\/","title":{"rendered":"COP27 in Egypt: Africa\u2019s Chance To Break From Climate Colonialism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How refreshing! Africa\u2019s top energy official, Amani Abou-Zeid, the African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy,\u00a0said earlier this month<\/a>\u00a0that African countries will use the UN\u2019s COP27 climate talks in Egypt next month to advocate for \u201ca common energy position that sees fossil fuels as necessary to expanding economies and electricity access\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No longer can it be taken for granted that countries in sub-Saharan Africa \u2013 where 600 million people lack access to electricity and use fuelwood and charcoal for cooking and heating indoors with horrendous impacts on respiratory health and mortality \u2014 will follow the\u00a0International Energy Agency\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0World Bank\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0policy advice on pursuing renewable energy which is best described as\u00a0magical thinking<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shun fossil fuels, African policy makers are told, since the wind and the sun will power the continent\u2019s quest for industrial development and higher standards of living. This policy advice is backed by coercion via vetoes in public finance and investment in fossil fuel projects by multilateral development agencies including the World Bank. But there is every hope that African countries, like China and India, will not be thwarted in their climb up the very same\u00a0energy ladder<\/a>\u00a0from wood and coal to refined oil and natural gas derivatives that the West used in its ascent to human betterment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa Awakening<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate change models that predict an impending apocalypse with absolute certainty lack credibility among policy makers in the developing countries where the real environmental problems are linked with poverty and the lack of economic development. The West\u2019s\u00a0carbon imperialism<\/a>, the corollary of the climate alarmist and Net Zero movements that has reigned in Western capitals over the past two decades, is increasingly challenged by the developing countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As COP26 held in Glasgow last year headed for its final day, a negotiating group of 22 countries including China and India called the \u201cLike-Minded Developing Countries\u201d objected to the \u201cmitigation centric\u201d approach of the US and EU. Diego Pacheco, Bolivia\u2019s lead negotiator representing the LMDC said<\/a> that \u201cthe developed countries are pushing this narrative of 1.5 degrees CelsiusCEL<\/a> +1.5%<\/a> very hard. We know that this narrative will lead them to control the world once again\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

N. J. Ayuk, Executive Chairman at the African Energy Chamber, is forthright in his view<\/a>: \u201cAfricans don\u2019t hate Oil and Gas companies. We love Oil and today we love gas even more because we know gas will give us a chance to industrialize. No country has ever been developed by fancy wind and green hydrogen. Africans see Oil and Gas as a path to success and a solution to their problems. The demonization of oil and gas companies will not work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

European Hypocrisy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asking Africans to leave their fossil fuels resources in the ground in return for charitable handouts and \u201cdevelopment finance\u201d from virtue-signalling Western governments and multilateral agencies such as the World Bank to invest on unreliable solar and wind power is not only immoral and unconscionable but plainly unworkable. As the work of Vaclav Smil<\/a> has irrefutably demonstrated, no country in the world has developed without the dense energy available from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claims to the contrary by the likes of the IEA\u2019s chief Fatih Birol seem little more than exercises in propaganda on behalf of a\u00a0compromised institution<\/a>\u00a0that cannot be relied on for even the most basic energy policy intelligence. In a\u00a0recent op-ed<\/a>, Birol said \u201cI talk to energy policymakers all the time and none of them complains of relying too much on clean energy. On the contrary, they wish they had more. They regret not moving faster to build solar and wind plants, to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and vehicles or to extend the lifetime of nuclear plants.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps Mr. Birol needs reminding that the decimation of German industry<\/a> seems all but assured by the fait accompli<\/em> presented by the sabotage of both the Nordstream pipelines<\/a> last month and what could be a permanent loss<\/a> of the bulk of Europe\u2019s piped gas imports from Russia whatever the outcome of the Russia-Ukraine war. No amount of solar and wind can save Germany from an ignominious retreat from its quixotic Energiewende<\/em> as its citizens look for fuelwood<\/a> to keep warm this winter as the shortage of natural gas tightens. Last week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced<\/a> that five lignite-fueled power plants \u2013 the dirtiest means to produce electricity \u2014 will be reopened, \u201ctemporarily\u201d of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But most revealing of all is the sheer hypocrisy of Western European governments in doing a complete about-turn in their approach to African energy projects when faced with an energy crisis of their own making, having self-sanctioned the EU from Russian gas supplies. According to the New York Times<\/a>NYT<\/a> -1%<\/a>, no slouch in the push for renewable energy and the climate crusade, \u201cEuropean leaders have been converging on Africa\u2019s capital cities, eager to find alternatives to Russian natural gas.\u201d So now that Europe needs natural gas, it is perfectly alright to override the World Bank\u2019s refusal to fund fossil fuel investments in the continent (as elsewhere).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Goes Around Comes Around<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The critical awareness of the fossil fuel-development nexus among African leaders such as Amani Abou-Zeid and N. J. Ayub has been quickened by the energy crisis besetting the West, especially in Europe and Great Britain. Political leaders who were once spouting their virtuous commitments to the net zero policies now worry about keeping the cost-of-living crisis at bay and their citizens warm (by using fuelwood even) while asking for voluntary \u201cdemand reduction\u201d and planning mandatory energy rationing policies<\/a>. Newly installed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is standing by predecessor Liz Truss\u2019s decision<\/a> to stop climate zealot King Charles from attending the COP27 climate summit despite the King\u2019s ‘champing at the bit’ to go. The Prime Minister himself will also not attend due to \u201cpressing domestic engagements\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

European leaders are now clamouring for favoured trade and pricing terms in global gas markets. French President Emmanuel Macron lashed out recently at U.S. trade and energy policies which\u00a0he said<\/a>\u00a0have created a \u201cdouble standard\u201d, with Europe left paying higher prices for its natural gas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, nearly a dozen US Senators are calling for the Biden administration to\u00a0curb liquified natural gas exports<\/a>\u00a0as Americans face a surge in home heating prices this winter. EU leaders are now faced with the prospects of the Biden administration considering a moratorium on oil and gas exports to Europe to contain price pressures at home. Some might call this being \u201cpushed under the bus\u201d or \u201cthrown to the wolves\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the depressed economic conditions during the Covid lockdowns posed profound challenges for the COP26 negotiators, the proxy war between Russia and Ukraine\u2019s NATO backers has pushed COP27 into the geopolitical whirlwinds. As global prices for fuel, fertilizers and food surge to unprecedented levels on the back of the anti-Russia energy sanctions and decades of green energy policies, the siren song of the climate crusade against fossil fuels will dissipate at least while hard times prevail in the West. Whether it loses its grapple-hold over the affluent West\u2019s angst-ridden psyche remains to be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tilak Doshi<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow me on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editors Note:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was first published by Forbes <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How refreshing! Africa\u2019s top energy official, Amani Abou-Zeid, the African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy,\u00a0said earlier this month\u00a0that African<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[237],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-colonialism-vs-national-development"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/download-1-3.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7265,"url":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/cop27-why-africa-must-be-part-of-nuclear-energy-appetite\/","url_meta":{"origin":7124,"position":0},"title":"COP27: Why Africa Must Be Part Of Nuclear Energy Appetite","author":"UgandaUpdate","date":"November 13, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By\u00a0Wambi Michael The search for energy diversification has taken a more frantic pace amidst the global energy transition debate. 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